ACEP urges Ghana to champion continental agenda on affordable energy
Mr Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has urged Ghana to champion affordable and resilient energy systems to drive Africa’s industrialisation. The post ACEP urges Ghana to champion continental agenda on affordable energy appeared first on Ghana Business News .
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has urged Ghana to lead efforts in promoting affordable and resilient energy systems to propel Africa's industrialization. Boakye highlighted Ghana's upcoming chairmanship of the African Union (AU) as an opportunity to raise the importance of energy affordability, industrialization, and energy security on the continental policy agenda during the 2026 Future of Energy Conference (FEC) in Accra.
He emphasized the need for coordinated African responses to global energy and trade developments that could drive up the cost of energy-transition technologies. Boakye cited the increased uncertainty in the global solar panel and battery storage supply chain, particularly due to China's dominance, which affects African countries striving to accelerate the energy transition.
He stressed that affordable energy is pivotal to Africa's economic transformation, as manufacturing, natural-resource processing, job creation, and digitalization all rely on reliable and competitively priced electricity. Boakye argued that energy affordability should be integrated into industrial policy rather than being viewed solely as a utility issue.
He advocated for stronger regional cooperation through Africa's power pools to enhance electricity trading and utilize countries' diverse energy resources effectively. Boakye also pushed for innovative financing and structuring methods for energy projects, noting that Ghana's renegotiation of Independent Power Producer (IPP) contracts, which ACEP supported, led to savings of about $250 million in debt and $7 billion in future payments.
Boakye urged African nations to combine stronger institutions, advanced data, suitable technologies, novel financing methods, and regional collaboration to develop affordable, reliable, sustainable, and resilient energy systems, emphasizing energy as a catalyst for Africa's economic transformation rather than a barrier to development.
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