Finance Miniser Ken Ofori-Atta has told parliament while presenting the 2018 budget on Wednesday, 15 November that to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all as stated in SDG 7, the Akufo-Addo government in 2017 added a total of 445MW power capacity to the country’s installed generation capacity, bringing the total installed capacity to 4,577MW in 2017.

“In 2018, Government will increase the installed generation capacity by about 487MW (Cenpower; 340MW, Early Power Phase 1; 147MW) to meet the growing demand of electricity,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.

Under the Rural Electrification Programme, he said “289 out of a targeted 2,185 communities were connected to the national grid.

“The national electricity access rate increased from 83.24 percent, 2016 to 83.62 percent in 2017. A total of 1,796 communities will be connected to the national grid under the Programme in 2018.”

“Government sold at a subsidy of 70 percent, 52,191 units of portable solar lanterns (with phone charging functionality) to poor off-grid rural households. In 2018, 50,000 solar lanterns will be procured for distribution to poor off-grid rural households. In addition, Government will embark on MDAs Solar Rooftop Programme to reduce expenditure on utilities; and

“Cabinet approved a new National LPG Promotion Policy to abolish the current LPG Marketing model and replace it with the Cylinder Recirculating market model. This will be implemented with the construction and operation of some LPG Bottling Plants and other infrastructure required for the roll-out of the new model in 2018,” he said.