Give teachers incentives to boost their morale-MPs

House urges the government to source funding for electrification

Accra (Greater Accra), 17^th November 99

The Parliamentary Finance Committee on Tuesday urged the government to intensify efforts to source for funding to extend electricity to 65 townships created under the Volta Lake Resettlement Project.

The towns are not covered under the first phase of a project that would extend power to 106 towns, for which a Chinese concession loan of 29.538 million dollars has been secured.

The finance committee made the recommendation in a report on the loan agreement that it laid before the House.

The first phase, involving the 106 communities, is estimated at 32.820 million dollars, including government's 10 per cent counterpart funding.

The remaining 65 communities are earmarked to benefit under the phase two of the extension project.

The committee also recommended that in order not to delay the implementation of the project, the government should ensure the early release of its 10 per cent (2.8 million dollars) counterpart funding.

It called on the House to approve the loan agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, the loan is repayable in 10 years at two per cent interest rate, with a three-year moratorium.

Giving a background to the project, the report said during the implementation of the Akosombo and Kpong hydro-electric projects, the Volta River Authority (VRA) built a number of townships with the necessary infrastructure and institutional services for the resettlement of more than 100,000 persons, whose villages were submerged.

The report said the VRA was not able to provide electricity to most of the communities built in 1963-66 and 1979-82 in the Brong Ahafo, Eastern,

Northern and Volta regions, because they were far from the VRA grid sub-stations and the electricity company of Ghana (ECG) sub-transmission and distribution networks.

Besides, the length of the envisaged sub-transmission lines rendered the supply expensive.

The committee noted that the government's commitment to extend electricity to the district capitals and other communities in the rural areas, resulted in the expansion of the grid network and some of the resettlement towns are now within distances feasible for connection to the grid.

It also explained that the on-going self-help electrification programme (SHEP) has given a strong impetus to the demand for electricity by the rural communities.

Consequently, many of the resettlement communities have been petitioning the VRA and the government for assistance in the supply of electricity to the resettlements.

The report said a feasibility study to assess the scope of electrification of the resettlement townships was completed in July, this year, and identified 171 townships as requiring electricity.

GRi