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Scheme on exchange of old fridges for new to be reviewed

The government will soon review its pilot scheme under which owners of old, functioning refrigerators are encouraged to exchange them for new energy-efficient ones through a rebate facility.

The Head of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change at the Energy Commission, Mr Kofi Agyarko, made this known at a three-day training workshop for journalists in Accra last Friday.

But he did not want to take the wind out of the sail of the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, who is expected to make a formal announcement to that effect soon, detailing the new package and the reason behind the review.

Under the pilot scheme, which was launched by the Energy Commission in September 2012, owners of old, functioning refrigerators are offered GHc200 as rebate on the price of new energy-efficient refrigerators.

However, there are speculations that the transformation in the health of the national economy, particularly the increase in the VAT rate and the depreciation of the cedi, is a strong factor necessitating a review of the scheme.

Cost-benefit analysis

The refrigerator rebate programme is under a UNDP-Global Empowerment Fund-assisted project titled, “Promoting of Appliance of Energy Efficiency and Transformation of the Refrigerating Appliances Market in Ghana”.

The primary objective of the programme is to improve the energy efficiency of appliances marketed and used in the country.

According to Mr Agyarko, about 4,000 old, functioning refrigerators had so far been surrendered for new and efficient ones under the scheme.

That means the government has spent GH¢800,000 as rebate on those who have taken advantage of the facility.

He said for every old, functioning refrigerator surrendered and exchanged, 600kwh of power was saved and the individual owner also saved 34Gp on cost of power consumption.

This means for the 4,000 old, functioning refrigerators that have so far been surrendered, 2,400,000kwh of power has been saved.

Ban on importation

Mr Agyarko said the ban on the importation of used refrigerators was still in force, claiming that the success rate had been about 99 per cent.

He said through information given by members of the public, the commission had arrested about 10 importers of used refrigerators who would be dealt with according to the law.

Workshop

The three-day training workshop was organised by the Energy Commission, with the view to building the capacity of journalists to enable them to report on energy issues more effectively.

The initiative was informed by the commission’s appreciation of the critical role of the media in articulating its statutory mandate of making rules, regulations and policy recommendations for the energy sector and engaging the public in the regulatory process to foster ownership of the regulations.

 

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