Cash For Rural Folks
Government is to provide 15,000 rural households not connected to the national electricity grid with up to 50 percent grant financing to enable them purchase solar lanterns.
The deputy Minister of Energy Kwame Amporfo Twumasi, who disclosed this at the opening of Lighting Africa conference in Accra yesterday said the grants would be disbursed through the rural banks in the country but declined to state when exactly the programme would take-off.
Lighting Africa Business Conference aims at developing appropriate and viable business models for delivering modern, clean and safe non-fuel based off-grid lighting solutions.
The conference is a joint International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank initiative which seeks to provide modern lighting to the 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity, by 2030.
Over 3,000 communities in Ghana have so far been connected to the national electricity grid under the National Electrification Scheme (NES) since its inception in 1989.
Electricity access in the country has now reached about 56 percent, which is one of the highest in the Sub-Saharan Africa, the Minister said.
To ensure accelerated increase in rural access, Mr Twumasi said government has streamlined the NES to ensure that all outstanding works in 300 communities electrified under the Self Help Electrification Programme be completed this year.
In addition, the deputy Energy Minister disclosed that five communities without electricity in every district would be connected to the national electricity grid this year.
“The government also intends to establish a Rural Electrification Agency that would solely be responsible for providing cost effective rural electrification options including renewable energy throughout the country,” he added.
Currently, 1.7 billion people worldwide are without electricity. The problem is most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa where over 500 million people presently lack modern energy, with rural electricity access rates as low as two percent.
Among the poorest of the poor, lighting is often the most expensive item among their energy uses, typically accounting for 10 to 5 percent of total household income. Yet, while consuming a large share of scarce income, fuel based lighting provides little in return.
There are new advancements in lighting technology such as compact fluorescent light bulbs and light emitting diodes.
The challenge is to make these products accessible to the half billion "lighting poor" in Africa.
With expenditures on fuel based lighting estimated at $38 billion annually, the potential exists to engage the international lighting industry in this new market area.
The event, which ends on May 8, is being attended by more than 400 government representatives, investors, financiers, private firms, end users, and development agencies to showcase and expand business opportunities for providing modern lighting services that are non-fuel based.
By Felix Dela Klutse