400 Communities to be connected to electricity in U/E Region
Four hundred communities in and outside the Bolgatanga Municipality are to be connected to electricity following the inauguration of a rural electrification project at Anateem, a suburb of the Upper East Regional capital.
Advertisement
The project, which is being executed by the Turn Key Contractors from South Africa (THENGASHEP), is expected to increase economic activities in the beneficiary communities.
Beneficiary communities
The communities include Anateem, Kulbia Nayire, Kuntinko No. 1, Kuntinko no:2, Anateem Akukam, Anateem Agobika, Anateem Kulbia, Dazongo Apebiko and Dazongo Adorigumo. The rest are Dazongo Agoodne, Kulbia Bokam, Yebongo Yepala No. 1, Yebongo Yepala No. 2, Yebongo Nayire No.1, Yebongo Kovingo, Dazongo Adorigomo No.2 and Yebongo Nayire No.2.
THENGASHEP has so far completed 170 out of the 340 ongoing rural electrification projects in the region.
The Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, announced this during a tour of the upgraded Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) substation in Bolgatanga.
The facility, which would be the backbone of power supply in the municipality, was upgraded at a cost of 40 million euros with 16 million Ghana cedis as Ghana's counterpart funding.
Energy crises have been with the country since 1983 while the current crisis began in 2012 as a result of multiple factors including reduction in water level at the Akosombo Dam, breakdown in some power plants and deficit in the supply of gas to some plants.
Bridging the gap
"The President Mahama-led government is absolutely certain that the development gap between the north and the south would be bridged," Dr Donkor stated.
He explained that in bridging that gap the government found it necessary to wean off the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) from its parent Volta River Authority (VRA) in order for it to become "a strategic distribution company that would focus on its mandate to distribute power to 64 per cent of the land mass of the country".
According to him, the government was working assiduously to connect all communities by the year 2020 or to achieve "universal access to power which is defined as connecting 90 per cent or more of communities to electricity".
He further explained that so far the country was on course as it had achieved about 78 per cent of that universal access to power.