Minister commissions rural electrification projects

Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembele, said the Government was determined to address challenges to ensure the smooth development of the country.

The people must, therefore, support the Government to implement programmes that would solve these development challenges, he said.

Mr Buah said this when he commissioned rural electrification projects at Domeabra in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, Ayensukrom Number One in the Prestea-Huni Valley District and Gonokrom in the Amenfi West District.

He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government was working hard to ensure that all rural communities were provided with electricity by 2016.

When the National Electrification Scheme started in 1990 only 15 per cent of the country's rural communities had electricity but “the NDC Government wants to achieve Universal Access to Electricity by 2016 to enhance the role of rural communities in national development,” Mr Buah said.

He said about 1,900 communities were provided with electricity last year and the target this year was to provide 1,800 more communities with electricity.

Mr Buah asked the beneficiary communities to use electricity for income generating activities to improve their living standards and contribute towards national development.

The communities must also conserve energy by switching off power when it was not in use.

Mr Francis Gbeddy, Director of Operations of the Technology Management Group, local representative of United States based Weldy Lamont Associates, contractor of the projects, said the company was to undertake rural electrification projects in communities in the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Central and Western regions.

He said the company was expected to cover all its target communities by the end of 2015.

Mr Gbeddy said the project was being hampered by poor road network to some of communities.