COCOBOD to provide sheanut picking areas with solar electricity

Tamale, March 30, GNA - The Ghana COCOBOD is installing solar panels in sheanut picking communities and farms in the three northern regions to reduce the rate of snake bites and to ensure that all sheanuts are picked from the field.

All communities, which are very far from getting connected to the National Electricity Grid, would also benefit from the package.

Mr. Francis Akuamoah Boateng, chairman of Strategy Security Systems International Limited (SSSIL), a company dealing in Solar panels said this on Monday when he briefed Mr. Issah Nasamu Asabgi, Deputy Northern Regional Minister, on the project.

Mr. Boateng said some of the social responsibilities of COCOBOD were to provide energy to deprived communities in the north especially in sheanut picking areas.

He said a team of experts was on the ground assessing the areas and would soon start installing the lights.

Mr Boateng called for the support of the Regional Coordinating Councils of the three northern regions to ensure that the company conducted the installation in a friendly environment.

Mr. Asabgi commended COCOBOD and SSSIL for the initiative and advised them to train community members, especially older women on the maintenance of the lights.

He said though solar power was economically useful for rural folk where incomes were low, it was necessary for people in responsible positions to use them so that others would patronize them.

Mr Asabgi stressed the need for SSSIL to adequately educate the beneficiary communities on their usage before providing them with the panels to ensure the proper use of the facility.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Finance and Administration of COCOBOD, Mr. William Mensah, announced in Buipe last year during a sod cutting ceremony for the Buipe sheanut processing plant that government was to provide some 2,000 solar streetlights for sheanut picking areas of the north.

GNA