Akufo-Addo tasks MiDA board to find solution to Ghana’s energy crisis

President Akufo-Addo has inaugurated a 11 member governing board for the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and tasked the members to find practical solutions for the country’s energy crisis.

The new board is to oversee the successful implementation of the Energy Compact which focuses on expansion and stabilisation of power supply in the country. The inauguration comes on the heels of the worsening power crisis which bedeviled the country over the past years. Inaugurating board Nana Akufo-Addo said the move is one of critical actions required for finding solutions to the major problems of effective power supply for economic and personal development.

The President observed that critical intervention is required to ensure that the objectives of compact are achieved so as to make life meaningful for the people of Ghana. He charged members of the board, to ensure the formulation of strategies that will help solve the energy situation for the people to benefit.

President Akufo-Addo also noted the energy sector is also faced with finding private sector solution to the development of ECG, something he said poses serious challenge to the compact. He has thus tasked the board to ensure that applicable solutions are found to end the crisis and bring successful implementation of the Compact. He also tasked members of the board to exhibit leadership to achieve the targets set for them and to deliver the country from the power challenges it is facing.

Chairman of the Board, Professor Yaa Ntiamoah Badu thanked the President for appointing them, and expressed appreciation for the confidence the President and the people of Ghana have reposed in them. She called for cooperation from key players in the power sector in order for them to deliver on their mandate. She, however, assured the President and the people of Ghana, that the board will do everything possible in ensuring that it delivers on its mandate.

“We have challenges we need to resolve to move forward, and the board will do all it can to ensure that practical solutions are formed to end the power crisis,” she said.

The eleven-member board includes Minister for Finance Ken Ofori Atta; Minister for Trades and Industry Alan Kyerematen; Minister for Energy Boakye Agyarko; Minister for Gender and Social Protection Otiko Afisa Djaba; Attorney General Gloria Akuffo; Minister for Business Development Ibrahim Mohammed Awal; CEO of MiDA Kweku Sarfo; Samuel Kwabena Desousa from the Private Enterprise Foundation; Humphery Ayim Darke Agyei from the Association of Ghana Industries among others. Ghana benefitted from a five-year $547 million Millennium Challenge Compact aimed at reducing poverty by raising farmer incomes through private sector-led, agribusiness development.

While the first compact aggressively tackled Ghana’s agriculture, the second is geared towards improving the country’s power sector which at the moment is in crisis.