The Minister for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said the government is working tirelessly to achieve a universal access to electricity for all by the year 2024.
He stated the country is currently doing above 88 per cent coverage of communities on the national grid.
Speaking to Journalists in Yendi last Monday (December 12, 2022) during a working visit to the northern region, the Minister noted, “Our aim was to reach universal access for all, that was our promise, but I can say we’re over 88% now and Insha Allah by the year 2024, we would’ve reach the universal adult coverage.”
According to him, the government would now extend its target to one hundred per cent by end of 2024 in order to achieve the SDG goal 7.
The sustainable development goal seven promotes affordable and clean energy for all by 2030 and Ghana as a UN member state is enjoined to meet the target.
“We now want to extend our target to reach 100% by 2024 and I can tell you by the next election, we would have reached the SDG goal 7.”
The Manhyia South lawmaker stated his main preoccupation working as the Minister responsible for Energy is to ensure the lights stays on and people have enough fuel in their tanks to avert the situation in other West African countries where people queue for petrol and electricity being rationed in those areas.
“So in the last five months, His Excellency the President has tasked us – either me or one of my assistants have been out of the country to securing deals that would ensure Ghanaians don’t ration fuel. Such jobs took me out a week today when Ghana played Portugal and such job had taken me to the Middle East where we were working with some companies to try and give us reliable, secured, cheaper sources of fuel, I took the opportunity to go and watch the Black Stars match and it was hugely misrepresented but it’s the job because we’ve been out for over four weeks now” he explained.
The Energy Minister intimated Ghanaians will not forget the government if they have to experience the rationing of power and they will ask, “why do we pay the Minister of Energy and they sitting there and doing nothing?
Affordable LPG
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh says the government has also taken cognizance of the cost of LPG in the country and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) is working with the government to remove the taxes for a number of years to make the product affordable to the populace.
“We have a program call LPG for development, in that we don’t see LPG just as for cooking but for real development. When you come to this part of the country, this is the area people cut a lot of trees as fuel wood and firewood for charcoal – we want to stop but before we can stop, we should provide an alternative means that doesn’t put the people out of options. It is reliable so we need to build both the infrastructure and create the access and we have signed an MoU with Saudi Arabia to support us in that direction of making LPG available” he emphasized.
