AFD affirms support for Ghana's energy sector

The Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) Director for Africa, Mr. Yves Boudot, says his organization remains committed to financing power projects in Ghana and has available, a wide range of financing options to support the government's efforts at achieving its power sector objectives.

According to him, the AFD has demonstrated that efficient public companies can have access to direct international financing without a state guarantee.

Mr. Boudot said this at a meeting with the Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, on Tuesday June 25, 2013.

AFD is financing the reinforcement and extension of the power grid in Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso, which will allow the Ghanaian national electricity transmission company, GRIDco, to scale up development in the region.

According to Boudot, this extension will have substantial economic, political and environmental benefits for the sub-region.

The program's main objective is to make Ghana's existing power grid more reliable and scale up its capacity, by reducing the current imbalance between the North and South of the country and thus support the development of Northern Ghana.

He said the AFD's support to the country in the implementation of its strategy for the generation component by financing the rehabilitation of the Kpong hydro power plant, will continue adding that, plans are in place to provide support for other projects.

Mr. Buah, for his part, said the relationship between Ghana and France continues to grow from strength to strength, recalling the current visit by President John Mahama to France.

He said Ghana's quest to achieve 5,000 megawatts power generation capacity was on course and asked for more AFD support, adding that his ministry was working to strengthen the utilities for greater efficiency.