News:
October 25, 2019
Vice President of Ghana Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said there are strong indications that, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) might not be able to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) seven by 2030.
According to Dr. Bawumia it is against this background that ECOWAS member states continue to improve enabling environment for investment in sustainable energy as a community.
SDG seven touches on affordable and clean energy, with the aim of having clean energy production, energy from waste, renewable fuels, energy distribution, management and energy storage.
He made this remarks at the opening of the third ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).
“We are doing a lot to better the condition of our people however, our efforts are not good enough as poverty and other socio economic indicators continue to paint a gloomy picture of the region. The good news is that as leaders we have what it takes to change this unfortunate narrative, hence the need to have an in-depth understanding of the urgency of our collaboration to remove the regional impediments to lift out people out of poverty by providing them with the right infrastructure and system meant for their development”.
He further pointed out that the sub-region owes it a duty to make the right decisions particularly in electricity sector with the focus on the rural population urgently as possible.
“To meet our ECOWAS target on SDD seven we need to take a stock and see why progress has been slow, we may need to revise our strategic plan, here in Ghana the sector ministry is committed to ensuring that our energy is reliable and high quality”.
Ghana has a robust power pool to support the ECOWAS regional effort to ensure that sustainable renewable energy is achieved as a comprehensive national renewable master plan is in place, he added.
He thanked ECREEE for its leadership and commitment to ensure that the region achieve regional energy integration on sustainable basis.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com