News
Confederation of Ghana Industries Calls for Accelerated Privatization of Power Industry
According to The Statesman in Ghana, the Ghanaian government has recently enacted tighter power rationing regulations. Recently, Tony Oteng-Gyasi, Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries, called at a press conference that the government should actively start formulating a long-term development plan for the power industry and take measures to open up the domestic power supply market to promote the rapid and rapid development of the industry. Good development. The AGI Chairman emphasized that the privatization reform of Ghana's telecommunications industry and refined oil industry has achieved practical results and accumulated valuable experience. Therefore, the government should be confident in the privatization reform of the power industry. It is reported that the Confederation of Ghana Industries (AGI) is quite influential in Ghana’s industrial and commercial circles.The Chairman of AGI said that through the privatization reform of the power industry, competition mechanisms within the industry will be introduced and enhanced, which will help to increase the overall domestic power supply and alleviate the adverse situation of long-term power shortage. At this stage, due to the large gap between Ghana's domestic power supply capacity and actual power demand, the government is forced to continuously adopt power restriction measures. In fact, there are many reasons for the insufficient power supply, which cannot be entirely attributed to the Ghanaian government and policy factors.
After meeting and further exchanging views with the heads of the Ghana Electricity Company ECG and the Volta River Management Authority, the AGI Chairman said that the current electricity price level in Ghana is generally low, the power generation cost of power companies is higher than the market sales price, and power companies have been operating at a loss for many years. Low electricity prices have also led to poor awareness of energy conservation among Ghanaian people and serious artificial waste of electricity. Therefore, the government should formulate policies as soon as possible to increase electricity prices, but at the same time provide electricity price subsidies to small production enterprises.
It is reported that at this press conference, ECG and VRA announced the latest power rationing policy, which stipulates that the power outage will be changed from 12 hours of power outage every 5 days to 12 hours of power outage during the day on the fifth day of every 7 days, and another 12 hours of power outage the next night (i.e. Power outages average 24 hours per week). This move will reduce the electricity consumption of domestic production enterprises by about 25% on average, and will seriously affect the production capacity of enterprises, leading to further reduction in product supply in the market, and causing price increases.
The Chairman of AGI said that the long-term power supply crisis in Ghana has caused huge losses to production enterprises, and the negative impact on economic development is currently incalculable. This 25% reduction in electricity supply will also cause serious damage to the economic effects of member companies of the Ghana Industrial Enterprises Association. Since the power cuts began last year, most manufacturing companies have purchased generators to supplement the electricity required for production. At the same time, measures such as shutting down air-conditioning equipment and idling equipment are taken to increase efforts to save electricity.
Finally, the AGI Chairman expressed his belief that Ghana’s power supply situation will definitely be improved and the goal of sufficient power supply will be achieved in the near future. By then, Ghanaian people will no longer think that using electricity is a luxury, but just a normal consumption for people.
RELATED NEWS
- Munich Re Insures Concentrating Solar Power Plant for First Time
- Global Economic Commentary: Germany’s Emerging Energy Sources are Becoming Popul
- Four Japanese Power Companies will Cooperate in the Field of Nuclear Power Safet
- the Steel Industry has Entered a Period of Cross-border Mergers
- European Gas Prices Fall to 10-year Low