By: Clara Mlano
Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh says there is the need for the establishment of an African Energy Bank. The bank the Minister says will be the citadel for the financing of Africa’s energy projects in the wake of the energy transition.
Speaking at the opening panel session at the 2023 African Energy Week on the theme “Global Energy Security; The imperative of African Energy Development” the Minister said the energy transition conversation from an African perspective is confronted with militating factors including; limited technological capacities, low productivity, weak capital markets and high input costs and therefore an African Energy Bank will be in a pole position to address these challenges.
“The Bank will understand the peculiar circumstances of the African continent and will therefore support our efforts” he said.
In addition to these, he said that Africa is particularly saddled with high energy deficit, inadequate human capital and lack of green energy infrastructure.
Deliberate efforts he intimated must be put in place to address these challenges
“Currently, about 600 million people are without access to electricity in Africa. Without a clear and purposeful drive towards cheaper electricity, the figure will rise to 800 million by 2030, whilst the continent sits on what shall effectively become stranded assets. Our position is that, we cannot starve in the midst of plenty” he said.
He continued “Ghana is of the uncompromising view that an energy transition plan worth its salt must take into perspective all the sectors of our economies with deliberate efforts channeled at achieving decarbonisation, energy security, access and efficiency to accelerate industrialization and yet lower carbon dioxide emissions and energy demand”.
The Minister said continues to pitch a narrative for the linkages between upstream and downstream to established on the continent to ensure value maximisation and retention. “Expanding the refining capacity and storage for crude oil and petroleum products and providing the appropriate infrastructure for petrochemical production and transportation of gas and petroleum products will to all intents and purposes provide these linkages”.
The Manhyia South lawmaker stressed that oil and gas exploration and production will be continued in the next few decades to ensure the availability of natural gas for these purposes. “We are cognisant of the implications of hydrocarbons on the environment and have already included Carbon Capture and Storage and other green interventions in our Energy Transition Framework to duly take care of emissions” he added.
