World Bank to back Ghana energy transformation

• 8 years ago (2015-07-31)

Africa 303

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Ghana, with a population of 25 million people, has suffered macroeconomic shocks in recent years – partly due to challenges being faced by the country’s power sector. A combination of water shortages for hydropower, erratic gas supplies from external sources, and delays in the development of domestic gas resources and new power plants have led to frequent power outages that have affected the poor the most.

The government of Ghana has spent more than $500 million on fuel subsidies to the power sector in recent years – significantly draining public resource, developing the Sankofa Gas Project - located 60 km offshore - is expected to bring significant benefits for Ghana by fuelling up to 1000 MW of clean power generation, replacing polluting and expensive oil-burning electricity. Once the Sankofa field starts to produce gas in early 2018, Ghana will be able to reduce its oil imports by up to 12 million barrels a year and cut carbon emissions by 1.6 million metric tons of CO2 annually.