Rural Electrification gets $3.7m Japanese grant

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - The Japanese government on Tuesday advanced a 3.7 million dollars grant to the Ghanaian government for the financing of the second phase of rural electrification project in the Upper Denkyira District in the Central Region.

The grant was the second in the past two years, the first being a US$5.8 million for a similar project in the West Akim District in the Eastern Region, bringing the total to US$9.5 between last year and this year.

Mr. Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD and Mr. Yutaka Nakamura, Charge d'Affaires of the Japanese Embassy on Tuesday exchanged notes to mark the delivery of the grant.

Mr. Nakamura said the grant was Japan's contribution to the Ghanaian government's effort at extending electricity to the rural communities and to finding a lasting solution to the on-going energy crisis.

He noted that the project would go a long way to reduce poverty and enhance the living standard of the rural communities through job creation.

Mr. Osei-Adjei thanked the Japanese government for the contribution and expressed the hope that the project would enhance district industrialization and provide jobs in the rural areas to stem rural-urban drift.

"I therefore seize the opportunity to reiterate that the grant could not have come at a more opportune time and to assure your government that the grant would be used for the purpose for which it is given," he said.