Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor says it has become crucial more than ever for government to partner private enterprises in addressing the country’s energy challenge.

He says the passage of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) law currently before parliament should enable facilitate the process.

He spoke with JOY BUSINESS at a workshop on Public-Private Partnership for Sustainable Electricity Development saying, the passage of the law on PPP which is currently before parliament would enable government officially and directly engage private enterprises in the provision of power.

Dr. Donkor indicated that government will continue to partner the private sector in running an efficient power sector in Ghana.

He added that “although we may not have been directly involved in the Public-Private Partnership approach, towards the electricity infrastructure development in Ghana, the kind of support that the government has had to provide and is still providing for public entities in their dealings with the private sector brings us close to the PPP approach and I say this because the legislative act to formerly bring in PPP under the loss of Ghana is still before parliament.”

Taking into consideration the limited budget resources of the state, the Power Minister stressed that “it is obvious that the huge deficit in infrastructure cannot be met by the public sector alone through budgetary allocations. As a matter of policy, the government of Ghana is encouraging the use of PPPs as a means of leveraging public resources with private sector resources and expertise in order to close the infrastructure gap.”

He is therefore asking industry players to adopt innovative ways of project financing that would provide the same comfort that lenders will require in order to speed up the project delivery process.