adminAccra. – Volta River Authority, Ghana’s largest power producer, plans to sell US$500 million of debt abroad to fund a 10-year plan that will almost double electricity generation in West Africa’s second-largest economy. The state-owned company will add 2 500 megawatts to Ghana’s power grid as part of a US$4,5 billion expansion programme, Ebenezer Tagoe, the director of finance, said last week. The Accra-based company has a capacity of 2 104MW, or 79 percent of the nation’s installed power and operates Akosombo Dam, also known as Volta Dam. Sunon Asogli Power Ghana Co. Ltd, Cenit and Bui Hep produce the rest.
“We have over 16 projects to develop across the country made up of expansion and building of new thermal plants, solar panels and renewable energy facilities,” he said.
Electricity shortages are hampering Ghana’s economic growth, which has already been limited by a drop in the price of gold, the largest source of foreign revenue. The government is turning to foreign markets to borrow money at lower costs for infrastructure projects. Ghana, which imports a majority of the motor fuel it needs, wants to double crude oil output by 2021.
The nation’s credit rating was cut yesterday by Fitch Rating to B, five levels below investment grade. Ghana spends about 70 percent of tax revenue to pay government workers, sapping money needed for infrastructure investment.
Ghana gets about half of its electricity from thermal energy and uses oil products to fuel the plants because of an annual natural gas shortfall of about 230 million cubic feet, Kofi Ellis, director of business planning, said. Electricity demand is growing at an average 10 percent annually, Ellis said.
“We will need 1 billion standard cubic feet daily in the next 10 years to power our plants and keep pace with economic growth,” he said. – Bloomberg.
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