The ministries of Power and Petroleum have been merged and brought under the Ministry of Energy by the president in order to ensure greater efficiency and to address the country’s energy needs, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced on Tuesday saying their separation did not make sense.

Former President John Mahama created the ministries of Petroleum and Power as separate entities to enable them, in his view, deal effectively with specific challenges confronting the energy sector.

However, Mr Akufo-Addo, announcing his ministerial appointments on Tuesday, 10 January, said the separation of these entities did not make sense to him due to the duplication of roles.

While announcing Mr Boakye Agyarko as Energy Minister-designate, the president said: “He is a product of Mfantsipim and University of Ghana and universities in America. He has played a very active role in the politics of our party since he came back from America and he has become an important voice in the energy industry in Ghana. So I think that he is in a position to provide the leadership in a very important sector of our economy.”

“We are putting back the Petroleum and Power [ministries]. In my view the separation doesn’t make sense, so we can have one person at the top of all the various institutions to have a bird’s eye view to ensure the efficiency and the development that we want.”