It’s obvious that without power the economy will grind to a halt. It’s the engine for economies and industries. Its underlying role in our affairs is too costly to overlook.

Yet the most important ministry in terms of the economy has no financial support. The lack of permanent financial structure and planning is creating insecurity in the nation’s energy sector.

According to the new government, Ghana is on the brink of an energy crisis due to the shutdown of the West African Pipeline for maintenance and cleaning.

This crisis is not caused as a result of technical difficulties but a lack of financial structure for our energy demands. The energy sector which is the lifeline of the economy is not given the financial priority it deserves.

A permanent financial structure in the form of a revolving line of credit is needed to protect the sector.

VRA’s thermal plants are dual-fired and can run on Diesel Fuel Oil (DFO) if Natural Gas is unavailable. The supply of DFO is the solution to our power generation crisis.

However, the country is strapped and needs a financial solution to acquire the fuel stock for the Thermal plants to generate enough power to make up the losses during the West African Pipeline outage.

There’s a need for the new government to prioritize the sector and establish a financial structure for the energy sector in the form of a line of credit that will always be available and also as part of the emergency energy response to protect the sector.

The writer Mr. Benjamin Amponsah Mensah is a Chemical Engineer and Energy Expert