Ato Ahwoi, the PNDC Secretary for Fuel and Power, has expressed pleasure with the National Electrification Programme, which was launched in 1986 with the goal of bringing electricity to all district capitals in Ghana.
Mr Ahwoi was given the Ministry of Fuel and Power after serving in the Office of the Chairman for two years under the Rawlings-led PNDC regime.
As a result, the Program was launched during his time in office.
The goal of the program was to provide power to every town by 2020.
Unfortunately, this goal was not achieved.
When asked if he is disappointed, Mr Ahwoi stated that he is “extremely thrilled” with how well the Program has taken off.
“We missed the target,” he conceded to host Johnnie Hughes on TV3‘s New Day on Thursday, June 2.
“It should have made me feel very sad, but I am very happy. I am happy because even though we missed the target of 2020, by the time I was leaving the Ministry, a fairly good percentage of the country had access to electricity.”
He pointed out that the Programme caught on so well that it became a competition among chiefs and traditional communities.
“Later on, it became a competition among chiefs and then also a competition among political parties. Every political party wanted to be associated with rural electrification and then in their manifestos and campaigns, they could say that when we come we will continue with rural electrification.”
Significantly, it was during the tenure of Mr Ahwoi that electricity was extended to the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and then Brong Ahafo regions.
He expressed happiness that the programme “is one of the few projects in this country which was not abandoned by successive governments. They continued with it and it caught on very well”.
Ato Ahwoi was speaking ahead of the launch of a collective biography co-authored by him and his siblings – Kwesi Ahwoi, Kwamena Ahwoi, Mrs Ama Twum, Mrs Efua Bram-Larbi, Mrs Agnes Appiagyei-Dankah and Mrs Adoma Bartels-Kodwo.
The book is titled ‘The Children of House No. D13 South Suntresu Kumasi’.
