From Kwaku Osei Bonsu, GNA Special Correspondent, Midrand South Africa

Midrand (South Africa), May 9, GNA - Energy and the closing of the digital gap, should be made Africa's top priority agenda at the upcoming June Summit of the Group of Eight Industrialised Countries (G-8) in Germany, President John Agyekum Kufuor, Chairman of the African Union (AU), has advocated.

He said there should be no doubt that the development of the infrastructure for affordable power supply and Information Communication Technology (ICT) would lead to rapid growth of the continent's economies.

If Africa could get the infrastructure for least cost and reliable energy and ICT interconnectivity, there was no way, it should not be able to facilitate transformation in its agriculture to anchor economic progress.

The immediate focus should therefore be on seeking genuine partnership with the wealthy countries in these areas, he added. President Kufuor was interacting with the staff and advisors of the NEPAD Secretariat in Midrand, South Africa on Tuesday. NEPAD, a strategic framework for Africa's renewal, is designed to address development challenges facing the continent through the establishment of conditions for regional co-operation and integration, policy reforms and increased investment in education, health, science and technology and the building and improvement of ICT infrastructure, energy, transport, water and sanitation, among others. He applauded the Secretariat for showing vision in the way it was networking and opening up the continent for development through the design of realistic and achievable projects.

NEPAD has identified for implementation, a short-term energy programme of action covering all the four economic sub-regions of Africa.

These are made up of one-hydro-power project, eight power interconnection projects, including the West Africa Power Pool, and three gas/oil projects, among which, is also the West African Gas Pipeline.

Professor Firmino G. Mucavele, Chief Executive of the NEPAD Secretariat, noted that Africa, with its 13 per cent of the world's population, consumed only three per cent of the world's commercial energy although its share of the global energy production was seven per cent.

He said there was therefore, the need for integrated energy planning at the regional level to take into account both energy supply and demand side options to meet the continent's energy needs.

Meanwhile, President Kufuor has dismissed claims that Ghana's current energy crisis was the result of negligence on the part of the Government.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Pretoria, he said, the Government foresaw that given the growth of the economy and the population, the demand on Akosombo hydro-electric dam was going to be such that it could not meet the national needs. It was for this reason that it raised the equity to buy into the West African Pipeline and started negotiating with the Chinese for the construction of the 600 million dollar Bui Hydro-electric dam project. President Kufuor said the Government was determined to double the country electricity generation mix capacity of 1,700 megawatts to between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts within the next three to five years. He acknowledged that the present situation was not comfortable but said the Government was working around the clock to get things improved.

He however, gave the assurance that despite the energy handicap, Ghana was doing well and living up to its pacesetter role as the "Black Star" of Africa.

Ghana has achieved so much and there is so much to celebrate about in its 50 years of nationhood, he added.