Deputy Minister of Transport, Hassan Tampuli, has revealed that data from the World Bank indicates that Ghana has one of the highest electricity penetrations in Africa.

The government is further dedicated to increasing this figure to 90% by the end of 2023.

Speaking at a stakeholder consultation on electric vehicle policy and implementation framework in Accra on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, the deputy transport minister highlighted that Ghana possesses substantial electricity reserve capacity, including hydro, thermal, and renewable sources, surpassing that of many other African countries.

Hassan Tampuli added that, “Really and truly, our reserve capacity is way more than a lot of countries even in Africa…A lot of these countries; Burkina Faso has 19% penetration, Liberia 29%, Niger 18.6% and so on and so forth. The closest you have is Côte d’Ivoire which is 71.1% so we have enough. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have in this country until we compare with other countries.”

“Almighty Rwanda is 48.7% and we sometimes hail Rwanda as the big boy of Africa but we have way more so we have more in terms of electricity capacity, hydro, thermal and renewables put together,” he stated.

In alignment with global commitments and the National Energy Transition Plan 2022, the government, through the Ministry of Transport, has crafted a draft policy on Electric Vehicles (EV) with the objective of decarbonizing the transport sector.

The policy's primary aim is to establish standards, guidelines, and operational frameworks for managing the utilization of electric vehicles in the country.

The Deputy Minister of Transport emphasized that electric vehicles will soon become prevalent in the Ghanaian market. He encouraged Ghanaians to prepare themselves for this development and the increasing presence of EVs.

“A number of them are already in town, we do not have a policy yet so it’s very crucial that we run very fast.The electric vehicles will come whether we like it or not, so we better be prepared for it,” he said.

Mr. Hassan Tampuli added that there is an alternative for owners to replace their internal combustion engines (ICE) with conventional engines or electric motors that are powered by rechargeable batteries to power electric vehicles, thus all vehicles with ICEs will not be phased out.