Cost of Darkness: $170 million

Millions pumped into resolving energy crisis
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu says $170 million has been injected into resolving the energy crisis in accordance with plans President Kufuor presented to Parliament in his State of the Nation address.

The investment, according to the Minister, is a demonstration of government’s commitment to resolving the recurring problem of energy shortages.

The fund is a multilateral threshold that was expected to be paid to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Again, he said, the West Africa Gas Pipeline project, which forms part of the short term move by the government in solving the power crisis is expected to be completed in less than one and a half months because he found the pace of work very encouraging during a duty tour to the site in Tema recently.

Mr Baah Wiredu continued that the Osagyefo Barge project that is deemed to provide 120MW of power was also receiving feverish attention from technicians.

He said the Ministry of Energy was also working around the clock to retrieve Ghana’s power supply to Togo and Benin including a supplementary one from La Cote d’Ivore.

Speaking in an interview granted to a local radio station in Kumasi, the Finance Minister disclosed that about one million CFLS (energy saving) bulbs with a power consumption level of 11 kilowatts of energy had been imported into the country for use and replacement of the filament bulbs that consume between 40 and 100 kilowatts of energy as part of the energy conservation practice.

He indicated further that Government would make it a practice for public hospitals, schools, state institutions and official residencies throughout the country to use the energy saving bulbs in order to minimize waste of power.