By Lawrence Odoom
Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has declared that Ghana’s energy expansion agenda is crucial to the country’s industrial ambitions, cautioning that persistent power instability across Africa continues to inflict substantial economic losses and undermine manufacturing competitiveness.
Outlining the government’s domestic energy strategy, Dr. Forson revealed that Ghana is aggressively scaling up generation capacity to guarantee stability and catalyze industrial growth. The target: an additional 3,000 megawatts of installed capacity by 2030.
Speaking at the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable on Thursday, he stated:
“Ghana understands these challenges deeply. We are therefore targeting 3,000 megawatts of installed generation capacity by 2030.
“President John Dramani Mahama recently announced that the government of Ghana is building 1,200 megawatts. Our goal is to achieve 3,000 megawatts of additional installed capacity by 2030. Of this, 30% of this will be renewables.”
Dr. Forson underscored the staggering cost of unreliable power, noting that Africa loses an estimated US$25 billion annually to outages — a crippling constraint on productivity and value creation.
“We cannot industrialise in darkness. Energy remains central to Africa’s transformation. Yet over 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity. Africa collectively loses an estimated US$25 billion annually through power outages,” he said.
He argued that this energy deficit is indefensible given Africa’s vast natural endowment in gas, hydro, solar, wind, and critical minerals.
“This is unacceptable, in fact, in a continent endowed with abundant gas, hydro, solar, wind, and critical minerals required for the global energy transition.
“How can Africa speak meaningfully about industrialisation without reliable and affordable power?”he asked.
Looking ahead, Dr. Forson asserted that Africa’s next industrial phase must pivot from exporting raw materials to building robust value chains.
“The next quarter of a century will therefore become Africa’s industrial century, not just extracting lithium, but refining lithium, not just exporting bauxite, but producing aluminium, not just exporting cocoa, but processing and building competitive value addition and value chain,” he said.
He emphasized that energy reliability is more than an infrastructure challenge ,it is the bedrock of industrial competitiveness and job creation.
Trade integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was also highlighted as a critical lever for growth.
“Trade integration is an economic survival strategy,” he concluded.