29 July 2013, Accra – GhANA’s Sector Minister for Lands and Natural Resource, Hon Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, says Ghana possess the potential to establish power-generation plants to feed the West African sub region.
Fuseini, former Deputy Minister for Energy, said investment in relatively cheap gas-fired power plants through gas that would be made available by the Ghana Gas Company would significantly enhance the competitiveness of products of Ghanaian companies and facilitate the generation of the targeted 5,000 megawatts by 2016 for export to countries in the sub-region.
“The West Africa Power Pool, WAPP, arrangement and existing contractual obligations to Togo, Benin for the supply of power coupled with huge power deficits in many other countries in the sub-region provides immense opportunity for prospective investors to set-up in the power-generation sector” said Hon Fuseini.
Hon Fuseini made the observation when Mr Kimihiko Inaba, Executive Director of Japan External Trade organisation, JETRO, lead a 2-man South Africa-based team comprising Mr. Yasuto Suzuki, Deputy General Manager, Toshiba and Mr Nozomu Sasaki, General Manager, Mitsubishi Corporation to pay a courtesy call on him.
The 3-member JETRO delegation is currently in Ghana to explore investment opportunities particularly in the natural resource and power generation sectors in a bid to boost investment of Japanese companies in Ghana.
Touching on Ghana’s excellent investment environment, Hon. Inusah Fuseni assured the team that Ghana offers a stable, secured and the most investor-friendly climate in the West-Africa-sub-region “where the government has demonstrated time without number that it will not expropriate or nationalize the company of any investor”.
Fuseini intimated that Ghana was looking forward to consolidate on its position as a leading world producer of gold by developing the value-addition sector of the mining industry and stressed that government has also prioritize the diversification of the industry through the development of lesser minerals especially base metals.
The Sector Minister announced that government has put together an attractive incentive package for a strategic investor to take advantage of Ghana’s massive bauxite reserves to establish a holistic and integrated aluminum industry capable of processing both finished products like alloy rims for the automobile industry and aluminum ingots for further processing.
