The budgetary allocation of GH¢854,062,706 for the Ministry of Energy for the 2021 financial year has been approved by Parliament.

The breakdown for the expenditure includes Employee Compensation of GH¢4.4 million, Goods and Services GH¢6.3 million, Capital Expenditure and ABFA GH¢76 million, Retained IGF (Energy Commission) GH¢68.3 million and Development Partners (DP) Funds GH¢679.4 million.

The Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Energy, Samuel Atta Akyea, presenting the Committee’s Report stated; that the approval of the amount would go a long way to support the achievement of the sector’s goal of providing; secure, safe and reliable supply of energy to promote economic growth of the country.

“If we approve the budget it will help all of us. Because without energy we cannot operate efficiently even in this August House. Therefore, I submit that the budget statement for approval by Parliament.”
Samuel Atta Akyea

Energy Ministry To Undertake Projects

Mr Atta Akyea also indicated that in 2021, the Ministry of Energy plans to undertake various projects. This, he says, is to improve its power generation and transmission sub-sector.

“Some of these projects include the completion of phase 1B of the Early Power project to bring the installed capacity to 200MW; the ongoing PPA renegotiations, continue works on the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam, repair/replacement of T3 Gas Turbines.”
Samuel Atta Akyea

He said under the power distribution programmes, the Ministry intends to connect 766 towns to the national grid. And also continue on-going rural electrification projects under the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP)-4 and SHEP-5 across the country.

Furthermore, he states that, as part of the Ministry’s effort at conserving energy, a total of 5 million LED bulbs would be distributed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

Additionally, he disclosed that, the Ministry plans to install street lights on an estimated minimum of 300km stretch of roads. And also on streets in some selected Metropolises, Municipalities and Districts across the country.

2020 Budgetary Allocation

Mr. Akyea also reveals that out of the total budget of GH¢685,766,327 approved for the Ministry in 2020 financial year, a substantial amount of GH¢441.03 million representing 64.3 percent was expected to be sourced from Development Partners (DP). At the end of the fiscal year under review, only GH¢55.13 million, representing 12.5 percent of the total amount had been released by the DP.

He further noted that the Energy Commission in 2020 received only GH¢30.05 million out of of GH¢77.61 million, representing 38.7 percent of the approved budget.

He posited that, the inadequacy of the funds released prevented the Ministry from undertaking most of its capital projects, particularly in the area of power generation, transmission and distribution, culminating in low performance to increasing national electricity access rate by only 0.19 percent.

Energy Sector Financial Challenges

Seconding the motion, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Ranking Member on Energy, says that some of the major concerns they raised regarding the energy sector is that government was unable to invest in capital expenditure projects especially in the power sector.

He said the reasons why the Ministry of Energy could not undertake most of its capital projects was that they were relying on donor partners to fund their programmes.

“Mr. Speaker if you look at the Ministry’s report, they indicate that they depend on donor funding. Unfortunately, only 12.5 was release for the year. It is important that the Ministry of Finance turns to look at these. Because if you look at the work of the Ministry of Energy, it is capital intensive.”
Emmanuel Buah

He therefore advised the government to make the Ministry a priority, saying energy is at the heart of the economy. budgetary allocation