The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has promised to introduce solar-powered outboard motors to help deal with the hustle and bustle fishermen have to go through before acquiring premix fuel for their fishing expedition.
The Vice President and Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) announced this at Abuesi, a fishing community in the Shama constituency of the Western Region as part of his four days campaign tour of the region.
Dr Bawumia described the initiative as a bold solution to ending the age-old problems over premix fuel for fisherfolks.
He said “When you look at the premix problems, we have not addressed all of them. So I have been thinking a lot and discussing how we are going to solve the problem permanently”.
“I believe we have a permanent solution to the problem.I want us to move away from the dependence on premix fuel to solar power for the boats”.
He said “Before the end of this year, we are going to pilot the solar power outboard motors.”
“We will make these outboard motors available to the fishermen and so they would not need to buy premix anymore. Once the sun is shining, their outboard motors would be powered and they can go fishing”.
Dr. Bawumia added that once the fisherfolks get the solar powered outboard motors, there will no longer be the need to buy premix fuel to power outboard motors.
“Next month, we will start a whole new regime for fisherfolks because there is too much ‘kululu’ (fraud) in the premix matter,” he said.
“We will take them out of the way and we will give the fisherfolk outboard motors powered by solar and then we will solve the problem.”
Dr. Bawumia’s announcement attracted wild cheers from the crowd, which mainly included fishermen and fishmongers.
In a related development, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has mentioned that his government will rely on solar generation of power to bring down the cost of electricity when given the nod as president.
Interacting with residents of Manso and Mpohor in the Western Region, Dr. Bawumia lamented the high cost of electricity for businesses and households.
He explained that the high tariff is a result of the high cost of importing oil and gas to generate electricity.
He said “Government will prioritise solar energy, by generating about 2000 megawatts of it, which will significantly reduce the cost of electricity.
“I want to inject 2000 megawatt of solar power into our generation mix and once we do that, we are able to bring down the cost of electricity by 50 per cent if we bring solar power into the mix.”
“I want Ghana to take the bold decision, which I am going to take by the Grace of God next year, to move Ghana away from a dependency on oil and gas for electricity to solar power, the sun, which God has given to us for free”.
Dr. Bawumia noted that his government will also prioritise the introduction of technology into agriculture, to help significantly improve farming.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Abuesi