The PNDC Secretary for Fuel and Power, Ato Ahwoi, has expressed satisfaction with the introduction of the National Electrification Programme in 1986 with the aim of extending power to all district capitals in Ghana.
With the advent of the Rawlings-led PNDC regime, the Ministry of Fuel and Power was created for Mr Ahwoi, having served in the Office of the Chairman for two years.
It was, therefore, during his tenure that the Programme was introduced.
The Programme was targeted at extending electricity to every community by 2020.
Unfortunately, this target was not met.
Asked whether he is disappointed, Mr Ahwoi indicated that he is “very happy” with the extent to which the Programme has caught on.
“We missed the target,” he conceded to host Johnnie Hughes on TV3‘s New Day on Thursday, June 2.
“It should have made me feel very sad, but I am very happy. I am happy because even though we missed the target of 2020, by the time I was leaving the Ministry, a fairly good percentage of the country had access to electricity.”
He pointed out that the Programme caught on so well that it became a competition among chiefs and traditional communities.
“Later on, it became a competition among chiefs and then also a competition among political parties. Every political party wanted to be associated with rural electrification and then in their manifestos and campaigns, they could say that when we come we will continue with rural electrification.”
Significantly, it was during the tenure of Mr Ahwoi that electricity was extended to the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and then Brong Ahafo regions.
He expressed happiness that the programme “is one of the few projects in this country which was not abandoned by successive governments. They continued with it and it caught on very well”.
Ato Ahwoi was speaking ahead of the launch of a collective biography co-authored by him and his siblings – Kwesi Ahwoi, Kwamena Ahwoi, Mrs Ama Twum, Mrs Efua Bram-Larbi, Mrs Agnes Appiagyei-Dankah and Mrs Adoma Bartels-Kodwo.
The book is titled ‘The Children of House No. D13 South Suntresu Kumasi’.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana