More people connected to National Grid in Upper East

Dr Kwabena Donkor, Minister of Power on Wednesday said government would ensure that electricity reached every nook and cranny of the country in fulfillment of the vision to ensure a universal access to power by all in 2020.

Dr Donkor said this at Anateem, a farming community near Sumbrungu, in the Bolgatanga Municipality, where he pressed the button to connect 17 communities to the national grid, valued at about GH?60,000,000.00.

Some of the beneficiary communities included Akoka, Agobga, Anateem, Yikene, Sokabisi, Dorongo, Tindonmolgo and Kolbia among others.

Dr Donkor, who earlier addressed the chiefs and people of beneficiary communities at a ceremony in Anateem, said extension of electricity to the northern part of the country was necessary, in order to enhance socio-economic development of the area and to bridge the gap between northern and southern Ghana.

He said extension of electricity was critical in ensuring that the north became an engine of growth, indicating that, government found it necessary to wean off Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) from its parent organization, the Volta River Authority (VRA) to become a strategic distribution company to bring power to 64 per cent of the land mass in northern Ghana.

Even though the Minister of power expressed concern about the on-going power crises in the country, he said the Ministry was working through the challenge and gave the assurance that by the end of 2015, the load shedding would become a thing of the past. “We will not just manage it, but would fit it and fix it for good” he stressed.

He indicated that the country presently had achieved 78 per cent land mark in connecting communities to the grid and expressed the hope that government would do more to reach all communities nationwide, because electricity was an essential tool for economic activities.

He advised the people to pay their electricity bills and stressed that the days when electricity was free is over, because the cost of power was increasingly becoming expensive, in view of the realities in tariff adjustments, and urged them to conserve electricity.

Madam Dora Nayine, a petty trader from Anateem, thanked the government for the intervention and said hitherto, women walked long distances to access grinding mills for their grains for food.

She noted that the coming of electricity had brought relief to school children in the community, who use torch lights to study and urged her fellow women to ensure prompt payment of their electricity bills because it was the only guarantee to having constant electricity power.

Dr Donkor and his entourage visited some projects at Navrongo and the GRIDco Substation at Sokabisi, where he interacted with the media and said government was not only determined to achieve universal access to electricity but was also looking at improving power reliability.

He indicated that with plans to link connectivity with neighbouring Burkina, as part of the West Africa Power Pool programme, there was need for excess generation of capacity for NEDco catchment areas, hence the upgrading of the Substation to meet impending demands.