As the conversations on green transition intensify the world over and also in Ghana, former Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor is admonishing that the country should not be caught in the frenzy to the detriment of Ghana’s industrialization agenda.
The former chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy is urging policymakers to shift the focus from climate rhetoric to the economic reality that the country needs cheap, reliable base-load power to drive industrial growth.
Speaking on GTV and monitored by The High Street Journal, Dr. Donkor argued that Ghana’s carbon footprint is negligible on the global scale and that the nation’s immediate priority should be competitiveness, not conformity to global energy transition trends.
“What is our carbon footprint? Negligible. What we need is cheap base-load power. Look, if it’s clean coal, that will give us the cheap base-load power we need to industrialise. Please let’s go for it. Let’s not be caught in this trap. If we can mobilise solar power at a price cheaper than what we have from hydro or even thermal, then let’s go for it. But that should be the basis. The basis is that we can do it cheaper,” he admonished.
Power First Before Industrialisation
According to Dr. Donkor, industrialisation is impossible without affordable electricity. Ghana’s ambitions in iron ore processing, steel production, and aluminium refining will collapse if energy costs remain uncompetitive.
Dr. Donkor, who doubles as the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation, pointed to ongoing plans to expand iron mining and processing.
This, he admits, is an energy-intensive venture that demands power at internationally competitive rates.
Globally, industrial competitors pay about 4–5 US cents per kilowatt-hour for power. If Ghanaian factories pay 12 cents or more, local manufacturers simply cannot compete.
“We are in the process of seriously going into iron mining, and iron comes with silver. Not just the mining, but also the processing. You are going to need power below a certain price in order to make that a reality,” he narrated.
He continued, “We also have the bauxite that will have to be turned into aluminium. Competitors all over the world are buying power at about 4 to 5 cents or below. And if you sell power to a factory in Ghana at 12 cents, how are we going to be competitive? So, for me, it is not a question of green for green’s sake.”
The Base-Load Argument
Dr. Donkor’s clarify that he is not against transition or renewables; rather, he insists that affordability must guide energy choices.
If solar power, he says, including storage, can deliver cheaper electricity than hydro or thermal, then Ghana should embrace it. If clean coal or another base-load source can provide stable, low-cost power, that too should be considered.
What matters, he says, is price and reliability.
Base-load power is the steady electricity supply needed to run heavy industry, and cannot be intermittent. Steel mills, aluminium smelters, and large-scale manufacturing plants require constant power. Interruptions or high tariffs increase production costs and discourage investment.
Jobs Over Green and Environmental Optics
Dr. Donkor confesses that the current huge youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb for the country. Without industrial growth, Ghana risks a future where thousands of young people enter the labour market with limited opportunities.
He notes that manufacturing and industrial agriculture offer large-scale job creation. But both depend on competitive power pricing.
For him, it is better to have jobs powered by affordable electricity than to prioritise ideal environmental optics while factories struggle to operate.
“We must put our industrialisation above everything else. Because if we do not industrialise, if we do not create the manufacturing jobs, if we do not even industrialise agriculture, we will be sitting on a time bomb of huge youth unemployment,” he cautioned.
He added, “as a nation, as a government, as a people, our number one priority must be cheap power. For industry, not for the homes. Look, I’d rather have a job and sleep in darkness than have light and not have a job.”
The Bottomline
Although Ghana is part of global conversations on sustainability and climate responsibility, Dr. Donkor argues that development must come first.
Countries that industrialised rapidly did so on the back of cheap and reliable power. For him, the green transition should not become a “frenzy” that overrides economic fundamentals.
He says, the question should be “what form of energy can Ghana generate at the lowest sustainable cost to power industry?”
Until that question is answered with clear numbers and competitive pricing, he believes the country risks placing optics above economic survival.
