The Gomoa Special Economic Zone has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Canada-based AKA Energy Systems for the development and operation of a proposed 270MW solar power facility, marking a decisive move to place affordable and reliable energy at the centre of its industrialisation strategy.
The agreement, which followed the earlier submission of a Letter of Intent, signals the Zone’s commitment to resolving one of the most stubborn challenges facing industrial development across Africa, the high cost and unreliability of electricity, before factories and manufacturers begin arriving in significant numbers.
Following the signing, the leadership of the Gomoa Special Economic Zone travelled to Canada to tour AKA Energy Systems’ facilities and meet with the company’s senior management. The visit was personally led by the Chief Executive Officer of AKA Energy Systems, alongside other senior officials, giving Zone leadership a firsthand look at the technology, expertise, and operational capacity that have established the company as a credible player in the global energy sector.
Seeing the technology firsthand confirms that solar can be a real solution for powering factories and homes reliably.
-Kwame Asare Obeng, MP Gomoa Central
Energy Before Industry
The thinking behind the partnership is straightforward, even if the execution is anything but. The Gomoa Special Economic Zone has made a deliberate decision to secure energy infrastructure before inviting large-scale industrial investment, a sequence that its leadership believes most African economic zones have historically gotten wrong.
Across the continent, the pattern has been familiar: governments attract factories and manufacturers with promises of competitive conditions, only for those same investors to encounter unreliable power grids and electricity costs that erode their margins and dampen their appetite for further commitment. The Gomoa Special Economic Zone intends to break that cycle.
One thing is clear: the cost of electricity remains one of the biggest obstacles to industrialisation across Africa. Too many countries focus on attracting industries before addressing the high cost and reliability of power. At the Gomoa Special Economic Zone, we are determined not to put the cart before the horse.
Gomoa Special Economic Zone Leadership
The proposed 270MW solar facility is central to that ambition. It is designed to provide the Zone with abundant, affordable, and dependable power, the kind of energy foundation that allows manufacturers to plan, invest, and operate with confidence.
A Broader Industrial Vision
The 270MW solar project is not a standalone initiative. It forms part of a broader strategy to position the Gomoa Special Economic Zone as one of the most competitive industrial destinations on the continent.
Zone leadership has been explicit about the logic: cheap and reliable power will support industries operating within the Zone while simultaneously strengthening Ghana’s standing as a manufacturing and export hub under the African Continental Free Trade Area, better known as AfCFTA.
AfCFTA, which aims to create a single continental market for goods and services, has opened a genuine window of opportunity for countries that can offer the right industrial conditions. Energy is widely regarded as one of the most critical variables in that equation. Manufacturers looking to serve continental markets need predictable power at competitive costs. The Gomoa Special Economic Zone is building precisely that.
The AKA Energy Systems Partnership
The choice of AKA Energy Systems as a partner reflects the Zone’s approach to due diligence. The MOU was not signed at a distance. Zone leadership flew to Canada, walked the company’s facilities, and sat with its leadership before committing to the relationship.
That level of engagement speaks to the weight the Zone places on this particular project. Energy infrastructure of this scale, 270 megawatts of solar capacity, requires a partner with proven technical credentials, operational experience, and the capacity to deliver at pace. The Canada visit was, in part, a verification exercise, and by all accounts, AKA Energy Systems met the brief.
Laying The Foundation
What is taking shape at the Gomoa Special Economic Zone is not simply an energy project. It is the foundation of what the Zone’s leadership has described as the city of the future, a carefully sequenced build-out where infrastructure precedes investment, and where every partnership serves a larger architectural purpose.
The MOU with AKA Energy Systems is one piece of that architecture. But it is arguably the most important piece, because without reliable and affordable power, everything else- the factories, the jobs, the export revenues, the contribution to Ghana’s broader economic ambitions remains theoretical.
Step by step, partnership by partnership, the Gomoa Special Economic Zone is making it real.
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