Asaga Lambasts Kufuor

...For A Failed ‘Braziliant’ Opportunity

GOVERNMENT failed to exploit the full potential of opportunities open to it at the recent Africa-South America summit in Abuja, Moses Asaga, the Minority Spokesperson on Energy, has said.

The landmark conference, the first of its kind between heads of state from across the two continents, and another important step towards increased South-South cooperation, took place in Nigeria from November 30 to December 2. Ghana came back from the summit boasting of a new agreement with the Government of Brazil, the latter offering to assist Ghana with the development of a new thermal energy plant to help us out of our endemic energy shortages.

Discussions between Ghana's President, John Agyekum Kufuor, and President Luiz da Silva of Brazil, resulted in an agreement for the Brazilian Energy Minister to visit Ghana soon. Technical details of the partnership will then be finalised with ministry officials.

But the installation of thermal energy in Ghana does not make sense, Mr Asaga told The Statesman Tuesday.

"If the Minister for Energy was supposed to be meeting the Brazilian government as was announced, my opinion is that they should have been talking about the bio-diesel technology and plans that we can bring into the country,” he said in an interview with this reporter.

Brazil has led the way in the past 15 years with its pioneering of bio-diesel; converting sugar cane into ethanol which can be used in place of gasoline to fuel vehicles.

About a third of the fuel Brazilians use in their vehicles is ethanol. That compares with 0% in Ghana - as drivers continue to complain about fluctuating oil prices.

All gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 26 percent ethanol, but motorists driving flexible-fuel cars have the option of filling up with pure ethanol, or E100, which currently is selling for about half the price of the blend. “Therefore for the Minister to be discussing thermal plans again, when major countries are rather going to Brazil for that [alternative energy] technology – for me it was a misplaced priority,” said the Minority Energy spokesperson. He said that Ghana has the potential for producing sugar cane in most of its regions – Western, Central, Eastern, Ashanti; where sugar cane cultivation might not only aid Ghana"s energy and environmental problems, but also boost the agricultural sector and help bring down unemployment.

So far, Government has been too concerned with hydro and thermal energy production, and paid too little attention to other alternative forms, according to Mr Asaga.

“I think the energy crisis we are having is as a result of inadequate planning and erratic investment positions,” he said.

“I don’t believe it is a question of the water levels, because this is always a cycle, and Government should have known that it [rainfall and hydroelectric energy generation] has not always been reliable, and therefore for the past six years, Government should have been looking at alternative energy sources for the country, instead of relying on just the hydro system.”

“If there are problems today, it should not be attributed to the fact that the rainfall has not been favourable or nature has not been kind to Ghana,” he said. Mr Asaga pointed to the 2007 budget, which was read in Parliament on 16 November. He said that Government has little in the way of short-term measures to address the energy 'crisis’ which currently grips the country; mid to long term strategies are important, but there has been little planning or consideration for an immediate remedy.

The budget statement acknowledges that 2006 was a “particularly difficult year” for Ghana, with low water levels in the Akosombo Dam, the “global dynamics of petroleum products consumption” and “instability in key oil producing countries” contributing to energy and fuel problems here.

This is precisely why Ghana must diversify its energy supplies, so as not to remain hostage to these outside forces, says Asaga.

Short-term remedies to the problem included the national load shedding exercise, with regular, scheduled power-outs around the country; and an educational drive to teach people about the need to preserve energy. Longer-term projects include the Bui Dam, for which Ghana recently sourced $600m in Chinese support; and the Osagyefo Barge Project – as well as ongoing exploration for oil and gas sources.

There are several projects slated for early-to-mid 2007, whilst the Bui Dam will not be completed until 2010-12 (although it will provide 400MW of Ghana’s estimated 2000MW demand once it is running).

“In China [at the China-Africa summit in Beijing, where Ghana recently secured soft loans to finance the Bui project] we played our cards right.”

However, more long-term thermal and hydro projects are no longer what Ghana needs. At the Africa-South America summit, “in view of what has happened, Ghana should have been rather proposing mobile emergency generators, as was done in 1998 and 1999… This was very silent and not mentioned in the budget.” “Of the medium to long term projects, they are all thermal plans. We haven’t said anything about other alternatives; and this is where bio-diesel comes in.”