Exploit Build-Operate-and- Transfer model to provide urgently-needed facilities
In November this year, a 50-Megawatts peak (MWp) solar power plant sited at Galgu, a farming community in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region will be inaugurated.
The $ 59-million plant is expected to serve Yendi and its environs. (See story on back page).
Since 2022, some communities in the Yendi area have been connected to the national grid under a rural electrification project.
Bringing the current plant on stream would mean that more communities in the area would be connected to the national grid and the social and economic implications are great.
It will be recalled that a sub-chief of Yimahigu, in the Yendi municipality, Abdala Fusheini Dasana, while expressing appreciation in 2023 to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Yendi Constituency, Dr Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama, for helping to connect Yimahigu, Oyomdo, Bago, Meidoyili and Kpachani commuinities to the national grid, said he and his people would no longer cover distances to neighbouring communities to charge their phones.
Chief Dasana added that their children would have the opportunity to study in the night since they had electricity to give them light.
These may sound strange to some people who have enjoyed electricity since they were born but that is the reality for others in the country, even today.
Therefore, making it possible to connect more communities in the Yendi area to the national grid is a great opportunity for the people to experience a change of life.
Besides lightning up the communities, the people can have power to undertake some domestic activities like cooking and ironing dresses, as well as watching television, listening to radio and having outdoor entertainment.
To top it all up, the people can venture into certain economic activities, which they couldn’t have been able to do hitherto such as cold stores, grinding shea seeds to prepare shea butter and selling cold drinks for true refreshment experience.
The Ghanaian Times applauds the arrangement under which Messrs First Sky Construction Limited, a solely Ghanaian-owned construction company, is executing the Galgu power plant project on a Build-Operate-and Transfer (BOT) model.
This means First Sky is going to bear all the expenses to execute the project and recoup its invested amount before handing over the solar plant to the Bui Power Authority, for that matter the state.
The model thus takes all financial stress from the state.
Besides, since the construction firm should make sure it recoups its invested funds before handing over the plant, it would always keep it in good shape and so at the time of handover, the state would have it like a gift.
It is good news that the BOT period is scheduled to be just eight years out of the 25 years the solar panels are guaranteed to last.
It is also heart-warming that the Bui Power Authority would ensure that the plant will always be updated to make sure that it is producing enough power.
Can the government exploit the BOT model to provide power and other facilities for needy communities as it appears it lacks the financial muscle to meet such needs in good time?
