GHANA- Friday, August 7, 2020/– Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu has revealed that Ghana earned GH¢273.8m between 2018 and 2019 from the street light levy.
The levy is geared towards supporting the payment of and maintaining energy used by street lights, traffic lights and public lights on highways.
It is in accordance with Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Act 2017, 3% per price of kWh of electricity is charged on all categories of consumers as public lighting levy.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Northern Electricity Department Company (NEDCo) are tasked to ensure collection of the levy.
A total of GH¢134m was garnered by the ECG, VRA and NEDCo in 2018. GH¢38m was allocated to the Ministry of Energy out of which GH¢21m utilized by the Ministry.
In 2019, ECG, VRA and NEDCO garnered a total of GH¢139m. Again, a total of GH¢44m was allocated to the Ministry of Energy, out of which GH¢42m was utilized by the Ministry.
Speaking on the government’s agenda to push renewable energy adoption under the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Programme, John Peter Amewu said, “the project is in the CIF sealed pipeline and the full implementation will provide electricity access to over 700,000 un-electrified inhabitants in some of the most deprived communities in the country,”
The project which is being funded by the Climate Investment Fund (CIF), the Swiss Government, African Development Bank, and the Government of Ghana, has advanced the development of the US$230m.
He added that the government plans have public agencies incorporate solar energy to reduce electricity bills. He said the ministry added 60KWp of solar PV to its existing 50KWp to this effect.
“The government has also signed a bilateral agreement with Germany on reform partnerships in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency, to the tune of €100m. This partnership will contribute to increasing the contribution of renewable energy in the generation mix through the embedded generation and productive uses”, he added.
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