Ten communities in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti region are set to receive electricity within the next three months as government will be connecting them to the national grid to provide them with electricity, after years without it.
As part of the project set to take place, the beneficiary communities will also have access to free meter installation.
They are among 582 other communities in parts of the country to benefit from phase two of the rural electrification project.
Speaking on the new development, Member of Parliament for the Manso Nwanta constituency, Joseph Albert Quarm, said he is excited at the project, which was scheduled to commence in early 2020 but was delayed due to the outbreak of Covid-19, because it took three years of lobbying.
Also speaking on the development, the Assemblyman of Pakyi Camp, Williams Kwasi Obuadom said he is hopeful that, the electrification project will open up the area for job creation and economic development.
“I’m very happy this project has been launched, electricity has been a problem from the community. When you talk about development you can’t take electricity out. It is one of the major things that causes development in a community. The people are going to get work to do”.
Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Power, William Owuraku Aidoo, also touching on the rural electrification project said, he was confident every household in Ghana will have access to electricity by 2025.
He revealed that, 12,000 communities in Ghana have benefited from the electrification project and by 2025, every household in Ghana will have access to electricity of which 338 communities are in the Ashanti Region.
Under the $103 million rural electrification program, five hundred and eighty two communities in five regions are expected to benefit.
The project which is an agreement between the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Energy and the China International Water and Electric Corporation would benefit communities in the Ashanti, Bono, Eastern, Volta and Western Regions.
According to the Energy Ministry, the Rural Electrification programme through grid extensions is aimed at extending electricity power lines to connect about 59,000 new customers in 530 communities in 26 districts in Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) operational areas.
The government of Ghana, through the then Ministry of Energy in January 2009, set objectives to increase power generation capacity from 1,810 megawatts (MW) to 5,000 MW by 2015, and also make electricity accessible to every part of the country by 2020 by enhancing the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity throughout the country.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Ghana’s total power production capacity through the thermal, gas and hydro mix at peak hours is 1,750 Megawatts and though significant, it is not enough to cater for the country’s vast energy needs.
The phase one of the project was earmarked to connect 495 communities in 15 Districts of the Ashanti, Eastern, Volta and Western Regions with 441 communities already connected to the national grid.
The project is currently running in its second phase.
