Youth Advocacy on Rights and Opportunities (YARO) has initiated a project to protect the rights of the girl-child through education and training with the aim of safeguarding population with minimum reproductive problems. Dubbed: “Girl Power”, the project will benefit 20 …

The National Food and Agriculture Show (FAGRO) in partnership with Ghana’s Embassy in Israel and the Israeli Export and International Cooperation Institute is to hold the First ‘FAGRO-Israeli Investment Meeting’ in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv. The five-day meeting scheduled …

Second Lady Matilda Amissah-Arthur Mrs Matilda Nana Manye Amissah-Arthur, wife of Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, has called for the adoption of a radical approach to the “management of knowledge” and a re-thinking of librarianship to keep the profession going.…

Coalition of NGOs in health has bemoaned the spate of alcohol consumption among the youth in Upper East Region and called on stakeholders, particularly government to help address the menace. The Upper East Vice Chairman of the Coalition, Mr Alagskomah …

“Books Matter,” a Toronto based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has presented several titles of science-based books to the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) at a short ceremony in Ho. Professor Fred Newton Binka, UHAS Vice-Chancellor, receiving the books said …

Mr. Asare Akuffo HFC Bank boss Asare Akuffo says banks cannot be forced to “throw money” at agriculture when the problems with financing the sector have not been addressed. Responding to calls by leading farmer’s organisations for banks to set …

By Basiru ADAM President John Mahama will today officially open one of the units of the Bui Hydro Project to bring onstream an initial 133 megawatts of electricity, which is expected to bring to an end the eight-month-long load-management programme caused by damage to the West Africa Gas Pipeline. This new generation will complement the 132 megawatts brought onstream last month through the Takoradi 3 Thermal Power Plant, thereby adding a total of 265 megawatts to the country’s installed generating capacity. This, according to the Energy Ministry, should make up for the 200 megawatts lost when the gas pipeline was damaged. “The Ministry can therefore state that based on our current peak load demand and available generation capacity, the load-management programme should end by the first week of May 2013 as promised by the President of the Republic,” a press statement issued by the Energy Ministry earlier this week said. The load-management programme began last August -- when the pipeline supplying gas to thermal plants run by the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the privately-owned Sunon Asogli Plant was struck by the anchor of a ship, stopping the flow of fuel. It is not clear when the damaged West Africa Gas Pipeline will be ready to bring in gas from Nigeria, as the transporter -- the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) -- has failed to give any more dates following the expiry of its April 30 deadline.   Government is therefore banking its hopes on the Bui hydropower project, which has a total capacity of 400 megawatts, and which when completed will supply a chunk of the 450 megawatts expected to be added to installed capacity by the end of the year. The Bui Hydropower Project is on the Black Volta River at the Bui Gorge, and is seen as the most technically and economically attractive hydropower site in Ghana after the Akosombo (1,020 megawatts) and Kpong (160 megawatts) hydropower plants.   The Bui Power Authority Act, 2007 (Act 740), was enacted by the Parliament of Ghana and assented to by the President in July 2007 to establish an Authority, known as the Bui Power Authority (BPA), to plan, execute and manage the Bui Hydroelectric Project. The project is designed primarily for hydropower generation, but also includes the development of an irrigation scheme for agricultural development. Authorities say this presents an opportunity for enhanced ecotourism and fisheries in the area. The project also includes a Resettlement and Community Support Programme. Ghana plans to raise electricity production to 5,000 megawatts by 2016, which Government says will be more than enough to meet the country’s needs -- thereby enabling the export of electricity to neighbouring countries. The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has also invested new resources into modernising the power transmission network and reducing faults and break-downs on the lines. In April last year, GRIDCo secured a loan of €82.2 million from French bank Société Générale to finance the Tumu-Han-Wa transmission project and revamp 21 sub-stations. The three power utilities -- VRA, GRIDCo and ECG -- have been calling for an increase in tariffs to boost their revenues and encourage investment. Power tariffs have not been reviewed for more than a year, despite increases in the cost of production and the worsening finances of the service providers. Curbing energy subsidies, which caused Government borrowing to skyrocket in 2012, is seen as crucial to reining-in the fiscal deficit and creating room for interest rates to fall from their current high levels.