Despite the country’s power challenges, Ghana is ranked 9th in Sub Saharan Africa with the highest value of energy and utilities infrastructure project pipeline.

According to Moody’s Analytics Infrastructure Key Projects Database, the country’s energy & utilities infrastructure project pipeline is valued at about US$13 billion.

It also boasts of the largest renewable project pipeline in the name of the Ada Estuary Tidal Power Plant in Sub Saharan Africa, followed by Northern Cape Solar Plant in South Africa.

“Non-hydropower renewables account for 46% of the total number of power generating projects in SSA, with 235 out of the total. Solar photovoltaic (PV) makes up 56% of the total number of non-hydropower renewable projects in the pipeline. With its relatively low costs and ease of deployment, we expect that the share of solar PV in SSA's non-hydropower renewables project pipeline will remain significant”, the report pointed out that.

“Although the average tidal/wave power project is much larger in capacity than other technology types at over 500MW, it is split across only four projects. The largest renewable project in the pipeline is the 4GW Ada Estuary Tidal Power Plant in Ghana, followed by the 1.5GW Northern Cape Solar Plant in South Africa”, it said.

The electricity penetration rate presently hovers around 84%, placing it number one in West Africa. Despite this, the Ghana has gone through power fluctuation issues over the years, a challenge which has not seen much improvement.

This is partially because the power sector has been saddled with debt as total debt is estimated to hit about US$5 billion by the end of the year.

This situation if not tackled could make it difficult to replace obsolete power infrastructure with ease. The current power generational capacity is almost 5000 megawatts which is adequate to supply electricity to the whole nation, but the distributional and transmission capacity is limited because the equipment are old. 

The report said Nigeria hosts the highest value of energy & utilities infrastructure project pipeline to the tune of US$22.7 billion in the region.

It is followed by South Africa and Zimbabwe with project pipelines worth US$26.6 billion and US$19.5 billion respectively. Both markets' project pipelines are enlarged by expensive coal power projects