VRA sets sail with IT

The Volta River Authority (VRA) says it has plans to use its fibre optic infrastructure as a backbone to extend Information Technology (IT) to the 110 districts in the next five years.

Known as the E-Ghana Initiative, the project would serve mainly as a resource for manpower development in the fast changing IT age, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief Executive, said in a lecture to mark VRA's 40th anniversary.

The lecture was the first in a series on the attainment of 40 years of successful powering of the nation, notwithstanding some operational hiccups. Dr Wereko-Brobby said VRA also had plans to launch an environmental initiative - The Greening of Ghana Initiative - to encourage massive tree planting throughout the country through NGOs, schools, homes and other institutions.

Speaking on the topic: "From Scientific Socialism to the Golden Age of Business: The VRA and Ghana's Development," the Chief Executive gave an overview spanning the Authority's establishment by Ghana's first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, its mission, operations, successes and difficulties, as well as its future.

The operations of some partner agencies especially the Electricity Company of Ghana and its huge indebtedness were also discussed. He said a major challenge for the VRA was to ensure that never again would Ghana be plunged into darkness, adding that such a situation would paralyse the President's vision of a "Golden Age of Business."

A second challenge is to be able to deliver power at the lowest possible cost, which must be fully recovered through economic tariffs. VRA says it receives only 194 cedis for every kilowatt it supplies at 432 cedis. Besides, the Authority needs resources to expand existing facilities especially thermal power and also explore alternatives to facilitate business and investment.

Dr Wereko-Brobby disagreed with views that VRA should not charge economic tariffs because workers did not earn real wages and salaries. He drew murmurs when he suggested that most consumers owned expensive home appliances and should be in a position to pay economic tariffs for the electricity they used to power them.

During the exchanges some contributors expressed concern about what they termed low tariffs being paid by VALCO, the Authority's bulk power consumer. They called for a review of the agreement between VRA and VALCO so as to raise the existing tariffs and other related conditions in consonance with current economic trends and save the Authority from economic difficulties.

Dr Wereko-Brobby said the country currently stood on the precipice of a third energy crisis after those of 1993 and 1998. "The level of the Volta Lake is low and we cannot even get it to contribute more than 45 per cent of our power needs from next year." However, the Authority is optimistic of securing the future if it was able to recover cost and made some profit.

Dr Wereko-Brobby mentioned the proposed West African Gas Pipeline Project as one such areas it would use to provide reliable and cheaper power through thermal plants.

He said the proposed Bui Hydro dam would be built only if the Authority was convinced that it was economically viable, adding that currently, government had terminated the existing Memorandum of Understanding signed by the former government to make way for fresh investigations into the viability of the project.