Gov’t to address invasion of foreigners in SME mining

President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday said the Government would rigidly enforce the laws of Ghana by addressing the illegal invasion by foreigners in the small-scale mining sector.

“This problem has been fully investigated and we have concluded that there is an unacceptable collusion between some Ghanaians and these foreigners to circumvent our laws.”

According to the President, a series of decisive measures are underway to purge the system and better regulate small-scale mining, in order to create and sustain employment, for Ghanaians, primarily.

President Mahama who was delivering his State of the Nations address in Parliament, said millions of Ghanaians and businesses are “today experiencing very erratic and frustrating electricity supply.”

“It is a situation that I am deeply concerned about and to which I have devoted considerable energy to solving. This is especially because compounding the problem of unstable power supply is an equally worrying issue of unreliable water supply to some communities,” he said.

The President said the current developments do not reflect the investments and progress Ghana had been making in the area of electricity generation.

He said: “What should be our successes and rather augment available generation capacity has unfortunately been undermined by a number of unforeseen developments.”

“We had made good progress in fixing the damage done to the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO) only to experience a drawback, when nearly 600 kilometers of the pipeline was inundated with seawater”.

President Mahama said the repercussions of the incapacitated gas pipeline had brought near total darkness to Togo and Benin, and led to the loss of over 200 MW of electricity supply to Ghana.

“As President I am adequately aware of the challenges and the extreme discomfort that it causes to the generality of our people and businesses. We have however been working to bring in more plants into operation while we await the restoration of the plants affected by the absence of gas from the WAPCO,” he said.

“We are expecting the addition of over 500 MW of installed generation capacity this year. 132 MW from the Takoradi 3 Thermal Plant by end of March, 130 MW from the Bui Hydroelectric Power Project by end of April and increased to 400MW by end of September, 2 MW from a Solar Park at Navrongo by end of February”.

He added that work has also started on a 161 kV Tumu-Han-Wa transmission line in the Upper West Region. Other projects are the Kpando-Kadjebi Transmission Project, a new 330KV transmission line from Aboadze–Prestea-Kumasi- Tamale- Bolgatanga among others.

“Government’s overall objective for the energy sector is to ensure reliable, stable and progressively cheap power for economic development in the country and the wider West African region.”

He noted that gas from Western Region provides enough flexibilities and cost-efficient ways of additional power generation. To this end, work is progressing steadily on the Gas Infrastructure Project at Atuabo in the Elemebelle District.

“When completed by the end of the second quarter of 2013, it will help expand the system to achieve the planned 5,000 MW capacity of power generation by 2016,” he said.

President Mahama said the “Government will continue during the year to support the utility companies to carry out distribution system improvement projects and increase electricity access to all parts of the country under the ‘Energy for All’ programme to ensure universal access by 2016.”

President Mahama said Ghana is progressing steadily in the area of renewable energy, by installing solar systems for remote public institutions and community lighting in off-grid communities.

In addition, Government will implement pilot mini-grid electrification for lakeside and island communities. He said the private sector has shown considerable interest in investing in the renewable energy sector.

“Government will ensure that the feed-in-tariff is published to encourage these private investors. We will commence the distribution of over 20,000 solar lanterns to replace kerosene lanterns and reduce indoor air pollution in remote rural homes. This intervention forms part of government’s efforts to protect the vulnerable in our society and to ensure that they have alternative and affordable sources of energy,” he said.