An Open Letter To His Excellency The President Of The Republic Of Ghana

Your Excellency, President of the Republic of Ghana,

Re: The National Solarization Project — Lighting Ghana from Within

Ghanaians are a resilient people. They have learned to cook by candlelight, charge phones at work before heading home, and run businesses on backup generators that cost more to fuel than the businesses earn. They have adapted — but adaptation is not development. The persistent and escalating power outages that continue to plague households, businesses, schools, and health facilities across the country are not merely an inconvenience. They are a structural barrier to Ghana's economic growth, social wellbeing, and national dignity.

Your Excellency, I write to you today not to catalogue a problem you already know, but to propose a solution — one that is proven, scalable, and uniquely suited to Ghana's geography, climate, and ambition. I am calling for the establishment of a National Solarization Project: a government-led initiative to transition Ghanaian households, starting with the most energy-vulnerable regions, from dependence on the national grid to clean, reliable, home-owned solar power.

Ghana receives some of the highest solar irradiation levels on earth. Every hour of sunlight we fail to harvest is an hour of power we pay for twice — once in darkness, once in fuel.

I. The Crisis in Our Homes
The power situation in Ghana has reached a threshold that demands bold policy response. Erratic supply — what Ghanaians have long called 'dumsor' — continues to disrupt daily life with a regularity that no citizen should have to accept as normal. Refrigerators cycle warm. Hospitals resort to costly backup systems. Students study by torchlight. Small businesses absorb generator costs that erode already thin margins.

The burden falls heaviest on those least able to bear it: rural households in the Northern, Volta, Oti, and Central regions where grid infrastructure is weakest, maintenance is slowest, and the cost of alternatives — fuel, batteries, candles — consumes a disproportionate share of household income. These are not marginal communities. They are the backbone of Ghana's agricultural economy, its cultural heritage, and its demographic future.

The national grid, as currently structured, cannot be the sole answer. It is ageing, overstretched, and expensive to maintain. The question is not whether Ghana needs an alternative energy strategy — it is how quickly we can build one.

II. Solar Is Not a Luxury — It Is the Logical Next Step

Ghana sits between latitudes 4° and 11° North, receiving an average of 4.5 to 6 peak sun hours per day — among the highest solar irradiation levels on the African continent. The sun is not a scarce resource in Ghana. What has been scarce is the political will and financial architecture to put it to work for ordinary citizens.

The global solar market has transformed dramatically over the past decade. The cost of solar photovoltaic panels has fallen by more than 90 percent since 2010, making home solar systems genuinely affordable — particularly when government intervenes to reduce acquisition costs through subsidy, tax exemption, or structured financing.

The National Solarization Project I am proposing is not a pilot programme or a donor-driven experiment. It is a structured, government-anchored transition — beginning in our most energy-vulnerable regions and expanding nationally — built on three pillars: affordability, trained local technicians, and sustainable job creation.

III. What Two Nations Have Already Proven

Bangladesh — Rural Solar at National Scale: Bangladesh's Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) solar home systems programme is one of the most successful rural electrification initiatives in the world. Launched in 2003, the programme had installed over 6 million solar home systems by 2021, bringing clean electricity to more than 20 million rural people who had no grid access. The government subsidised acquisition costs, trained local technicians to install and maintain systems, and created a network of service enterprises across rural districts. The result: a massive reduction in kerosene dependency, improved educational outcomes from evening lighting, and tens of thousands of sustainable green jobs — all in a country with comparable population density and climate conditions to Ghana.

Morocco — The National Solar Commitment: Morocco launched its National Solar Plan with a target of 2,000 megawatts of solar capacity, anchored by the Noor Solar Complex — one of the world's largest concentrated solar power plants. Beyond large infrastructure, Morocco simultaneously invested in a distributed rooftop solar programme that reduced household energy costs and created an entirely new technical workforce trained in solar installation, maintenance, and systems management. By 2023, Morocco had reduced its energy import dependency significantly and positioned itself as a regional energy exporter. A country with fewer natural advantages than Ghana built an energy transformation in under fifteen years.

Bangladesh lit 20 million rural lives with solar. Morocco built an energy industry from scratch. Ghana has more sunshine than both. What we need is a plan.

IV. The National Solarization Project — A Proposal

I respectfully propose that the Government of Ghana establish and fund a National Solarization Project under the Ministry of Energy, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government, structured as follows:

• Phase 1 — Priority Regions (Years 1–3): Begin the programme in the five Northern Regions (Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West), Volta Region, Oti Region, and Central Region — the areas most affected by grid instability and with the highest solar irradiation potential. Target a minimum of 200,000 households in Phase 1.
• Subsidised household ownership: Government should reduce the cost of solar home system acquisition through: import duty waivers on solar panels, batteries, and inverters; a low-interest household solar loan facility through the Agricultural Development Bank and rural community banks; and direct subsidy for low-income households identified through the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) registry.
• Train 1,000+ solar technicians: Establish regional solar technology training centres — one per region in Phase 1 — to train a minimum of 150 technicians per region in solar panel installation, battery system maintenance, inverter repair, and off-grid system design. Partner with TVET institutions, the Ghana Education Service, and international solar training bodies to deliver internationally recognised certification.
• Mandate local assembly: Negotiate with solar manufacturers to establish local panel assembly and battery production facilities in Ghana, progressively replacing imported finished goods. This keeps value in-country and builds an industrial base.
• A National Solar Registry: Maintain a publicly accessible database of certified solar technicians, installed systems, service records, and regional coverage maps — ensuring quality control, accountability, and consumer protection.

V. The Jobs Argument — Sustainable, Distributed, Dignified

Your Excellency, energy policy and employment policy are the same conversation. The National Solarization Project is not only about electricity — it is about work.

Each solar technician trained becomes a self-employed or SME-employed professional with a certified, in-demand skill that cannot be outsourced abroad. Unlike many development initiatives, solar maintenance is inherently local — a rooftop system in Tamale must be serviced by someone in Tamale. The market for solar installation, maintenance, battery replacement, and system upgrades in a country of 35 million people, once the programme is at scale, is enormous and permanent.

The jobs created are not temporary construction employment. They are the beginning of a green energy services sector — technicians, entrepreneurs, distributors, trainers, and engineers — that will outlast any single government and grow with the national economy.

Furthermore, as Ghana's coding initiative produces software developers, pairing them with the solar sector creates an entirely new frontier: Ghanaian-built solar monitoring applications, smart metering platforms, predictive maintenance tools, and community energy management systems — software built in Accra to manage energy in Bolgatanga. These two national initiatives, run in parallel, become a multiplier for each other.

VI. What This Means for National Development

The case for the National Solarization Project rests on five development imperatives:

• Energy security: Reducing household dependence on the grid lowers demand pressure, reduces outage frequency for those who remain on grid, and builds national resilience against fuel supply disruptions and generation shortfalls.
• Economic productivity: Reliable household electricity means students study longer, home-based businesses operate more hours, and families spend less on candles, fuel, and lost food. The economic productivity gain per household is measurable and significant.
• Health outcomes: Solar-powered health facilities in underserved regions can maintain cold chains for vaccines, run diagnostic equipment, and operate safely after dark. Every clinic in the Volta Region that runs on solar is a life saved.
• Climate commitment: Ghana has made climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. A national solar programme is one of the most credible and visible ways to demonstrate that those commitments are not rhetorical. It positions Ghana as a continental leader in just energy transition.
• Regional equity: The Northern Regions, Oti, Volta, and Central have historically received the least reliable energy infrastructure. A programme that begins there is not merely energy policy — it is a statement about which Ghanaians this government considers worth investing in.

Reliable electricity is not a privilege. It is the precondition for everything else we want Ghana to become.

VII. A Respectful Call to Action
Your Excellency, I respectfully call on the Government of Ghana to:

• Establish the National Solarization Project as a flagship energy policy initiative with dedicated budgetary allocation in the 2027 national budget.
• Immediately waive import duties on solar panels, batteries, inverters, and installation equipment to reduce acquisition costs for households and installers.
• Commission the establishment of regional solar training centres in Phase 1 target regions, with a target of training 1,000 certified solar technicians within 24 months.
• Create a National Household Solar Loan Facility with a maximum 8 percent interest rate and 5-year repayment terms, administered through existing rural banking infrastructure.
• Extend LEAP subsidy coverage to include solar home system acquisition for qualifying low-income households.
• Establish a National Solar Registry to track installations, certify technicians, protect consumers, and measure programme impact transparently.
• Explore partnership with Bangladesh's IDCOL model and Morocco's distributed solar framework to adapt proven implementation structures to Ghana's context.

Your Excellency, the sun rises over Ghana every morning. It does not discriminate between rich and poor, North and South, urban and rural. It falls equally on the palace and the compound house. What we build beneath it — and for whom — is a choice. The National Solarization Project is a choice to build for everyone.

The darkness that has persisted in too many Ghanaian homes for too long is not inevitable. It is solvable. And the solution is already overhead — waiting for the policy infrastructure to harness it.

I urge your government to act with the boldness this moment demands.

Respectfully submitted,
Rexford Adjei Darko
Communications & PR Practitioner | Cybersecurity Professional | Agentic AI Engineer

Email: rexfordgh1@yahoo.com
Tel: +66 065 973 3550 (Thailand) | +233 244 769 456 (Ghana)

June 2026

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