An interaction with Hanna Jung and Robert Buzzard of Power Africa
One major constraint to economic growth not only in Ghana but the entire African continent is lack of access to electricity. Even for those parts of the continent where there is access to power and electricity, its reliability cannot be assured.
The dream of every Ghanaian in these times of power crisis is to see the end of this horrible load shedding which has collapsed numerous businesses and drastically crippled economic growth in the country.
Perhaps, there seem to be hope. It very much sounds like President Obama could see through the minds, hopes and aspirations of Ghanaians when he announced his Power Africa Initiative to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. This initiative is on the verge to bear fruits in the Ghanaian power and electricity sector.
The goal of the initiative is to increase electricity access by adding more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity for 60 million new home and business connections across sub Saharan Africa.
A Power Africa team is present in Ghana working tirelessly to see the realization of the goals of Power Africa in Ghana. The mission of the team in my estimation is to stimulate economic growth in Ghana and also improving the quality of life of not only Ghanaians but Africans as a whole through the initiative. Though, this may sound ambiguous, that is indeed the overall objective of Power Africa.
However, Hanna Jung, a member of the Power Africa Team in Ghana would want to measure the success of the initiative if by the end of the initiative’s investments, a sustainable power sector that provides an environment for continuous investment by governments and the private businesses is realized.
This in her opinion will ensure the continuous supply of electricity for businesses, homes, hospitals, schools and all others. She added “we all know, the power sector cannot be the sole investment of the government, the private sector has to be a part.”
Power Africa spans over a 5 year period from 2013 to 2018 but the funds for the project would be invested over a long period of time. Hanna Jung continued that, “we recognize that, in one year or two years, we won’t be able to see dramatic changes but we will lay the foundations and over a long period span, the results would be realized not only in the generation of power but the access to power as well.
As it currently stands, Power Africa is working tirelessly in the Upstream Link of Ghana’s power sector to assist to improve the efficiency of the production of natural gas as a source of fuel supply for power generation. An effective fuel supply link is critical to solving Ghana’s energy challenges. In this regard, “a good fuel generation chain would be key to the realization of the initiative’s objectives in Ghana” says Robert Buzzard, also a member of the team.
Thus, the Power Africa office is closely working with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy Commission and the Petroleum Commission in providing technical assistance for developing regulations for the operation of gas infrastructure in the country.
With regards to the Generation Link, Power Africa is working with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the private sector in the negotiation of power purchase agreements.
Power Africa is therefore serving as a link between the government and the private sector on achieving a consensus in providing a reasonable price of power to the Ghanaian consumer. The idea is to encourage the participation of the private sector in power generation.
It is worthy to note that Power Africa has been instrumental through its technical assistance in getting gas from the well heads in the Jubilee Fields to the gas processing plant in Atuabo, through the processing plant into a pipeline to the generation facilities in Aboadze.
Also, Power Africa has played a critical role in getting Cenn Power, an independent power producer in the construction of a plant to generate 348 MW for the country.
Power Africa’s support in this regard was the review of loan documents, assisting with lender requests, due diligence on Cenn’s Power financial models and making recommendations to ECG and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Another achievement of Power Africa that cannot be left out is the efforts leading to the signing of the second compact of the Millennium Challenge Compact which will invest up to $498.2 million to support the transformation of Ghana’s power sector and stimulate private investment.
The second compact comes with an aspect of addressing private sector investor participation in the generation and distribution of power, a goal of Power Africa.
Further, there has been some solid collaborations with the US Exim Bank in providing power to some communities and household in the rural areas in the country. Mobile units to deliver power in the short term would also be effected once its financing is finalized.
Robert Buzzard is of the firm believe that the future looks good for Ghana’s power industry. He mentions, “There are at least 5 transactions in the pipeline at different stages of coming to closure, when these plants are constructed, they will deliver very substantial generation capacity to contribute to our goals as well as President Mahama’s goal of 5000 MW”.
Mr. Buzzard believes Power Africa has set the table for good things to happen in the country although everyone is feeling the pinch of the power crisis.
The initiative is moving. Power Africa is delivering and in the months ahead, there would be “Power for the people”. Mr. Buzzard however is of the opinion, the Ghanaian populace should keep the pressure to hold government accountable in delivering power to the people.
Power Africa works in close collaboration with USAID, USDA, US Army Corps of Engineers, OPIC, US Exim Bank, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and a host of others including the multilateral banks for the realization of its goals and objective.
It is worthy to note that Power Africa and USAID is open to innovative ideas and proposals from people to be considered for direct funding. There are however a number of mechanisms to assess these proposals. More information on this can be found online.
Hanna Jung mentioned that, no matter how successful the initiative is, some communities would certainly be off the national grid, thus the idea of the initiative’s “Beyond the Grid” program which also welcomes ideas and proposals from small organizations on local solutions and local power system in providing renewable power for communities off the grid.
By Associate Editor, Diplomatic Call
