The Deputy Minister-designate for Energy, Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer says there is a need for a review of the tariff mechanism for electricity to ensure affordability for consumers in the industrial sector to drive employment and economic growth.
He noted that the different tariff regimes currently in existence had made industries pay more for electricity because of high consumption which has placed them in the high band category.
“I stand with my Minister that there is a need for a review of the tariff mechanism. We have a situation in Ghana where the tariffs are segmented in bands such that the first band pricing is different from the second band.”
Answering questions at his vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Mr Mercer said a review that will take away the segmentation and make the modalities neutral just like what prevails at the downstream petroleum sector will be the way out of the challenge.
“That regime, when applied in the electricity space, will make it affordable for the industry to drive employment and economic growth,” the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi suggested.
The nominee promised to assist the sector in working towards achieving universal access to electricity in the country, “as we speak, we are somewhere in the region of 86 per cent. The 14 percentage mark will not be too onus to achieve.”
“I know that where we are now, most of the communities that have not been connected are as a result of their proximity issue to the national grid,” he said and noted that President Akufo-Addo in his state of the nation’s address delivered in February in Parliament indicated that his government’s desire will be for Ghana to attain 100 per cent by 2024.
He pledged his willingness to assist the Minister of Energy to ensure that all the technologies are used to see to it that the communities within the 14 per cent bracket get access to electricity.
Mr Mercer also said he believed that multiplicity of options in respect to how the nation deals with its oil resources would be the way to go for Ghana to reap the full benefit of the oil resources, noting that “obviously, because of the energy transition that is stirring in the face where globally we are all moving towards the carbon-neutral economy and clean energy usage.”
He indicated that it would be useful for Ghana to expeditiously implement the various energy options available in the exploration of natural resources.
Metering of oil block
The nominee again suggested for the country to employ technology to monitor its petroleum assets, saying “I have seen quite recently a video of South Arabia on how they monitor their oil blocks and the quantity of the oil that is produced at any point in time.”
“They have real-time monitoring of their petroleum assets. This is a technology, now that there is the internet, we can deploy to monitor oil blocks in real-time.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House