Expert blames successive gov’ts

…for Ghana’s energy problems
Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A Senior Lecturer at the Central University College and former Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST), Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has blamed successive governments, for not having the political will to implement policies, to protect the country’s energy sources.
He believes the inability of most of these past and the present government’s, to impose sanctions on the importation of used electrical and electronic appliances, has immensely contributed to the current challenges, the country was facing in the energy sector.
He has thus called for total ban on the importation of used electrical and electronic appliances.
Dr. Donkor was speaking, at the ongoing Students and Young Professionals Liberty Academy (SYPALA), put together by Imani, the Centre for Policy and Education Advancing Freedom and Prosperity, at the Ashesi University in Accra.
He has thus asked the current government, to muster courage and impose a ban on the importation of such products, since it was having a telling effect on Ghana’s energy needs.
This, he said, was evident in the fact the consumption levels of used products, were relatively higher than new ones.
Speaking on the theme ‘Energy Security and the so-called Resource Curse,’ the former Director of the Ghana’s largest petroleum logistics company, BOST, identified used-fridges, stoves, televisions and stereo systems, among products which were energy inefficient.
According to him, this had resulted in a situation where most of these European countries, use Ghana and other developing countries, as dumping grounds to dispose off their waste, asking rhetorically, “they have a problem with disposal, so why should we burden ourselves with the disposal problems of another economy?”
He emphasised that increasingly, energy efficiency had become a major issue in manufacturing, stressing that the newer generation of most electrical gadgets being produced, are more energy efficient than the older ones.
“In the era of high energy prices, efficiency should be our driving word,” Dr. Donkor prescribed.
The seminar, in keeping with the scope of its ambitions, as this year’s biggest educational event, and its objective as a transformative experience in the intellectual life of Africa’s emerging leaders, has sought to assemble some of Ghana’s most renowned thinkers, to deliver a series of lectures, participate in a range of round-table and panel discussions, and lead a number of workshops, and tutorials at Ashesi and the Alisa hotel.
Concerned about the seeming lowering of discourse in recent times, especially with regards to those accessible to emerging leaders, the programme which runs till June 27, 2008 is hosting a residential academy at Ashesi University for students and young professionals across the African continent.
This is in partnership with the London-based International Policy Network (IPN), the Washington-based CATO Institute and the Brussels-based European Enterprise Institute (EEI).
It brought together students and professionals from all walks of life to listen to carefully selected resource fellows.
Executive Director of Imani, Franklin Cudjoe was short of words to describe the depth of knowledge being imparted by the carefully selected resource persons on participants.
He is confidence that the programme would achieve its target considering the level of intellectual discourse since it started on Sunday.