This, according to the 2014 Social Development Outlook, amounts to between two and six per cent of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as a result of the power deficit in 2013 and 2014.

 

The report indicated that “the current power shortages and load-shedding exercise in Ghana is a major constraint on social development.”

 

The research, which focused on energy, education, health, human security, water and sanitation, housing and employment, was launched in Accra today by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey.

 

He also launched three books on oil management, domestic resource mobilisation and health care.

 

Presenting an overview of the report, the Head of the Social Division of ISSER, Rev. Dr Adobea Yaa Owusu, who coordinated the research, said the power situation was a major bottleneck hampering Ghana’s development. 

 

She said the increased use of generating sets necessitated by the power crisis posed a huge public health cost, pointing out, for instance, that fumes from generating sets had carcinogenic effect which could cause lung and throat cancer.

 

Renewable energy

 

According to the report, inadequate access to clean, reliable and affordable energy was a major bottleneck for sustainable development.

 

It said 28 per cent of Ghana’s population had no access to electricity.

 

The report said only 18.2 per cent of the population had access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and indicated that wood fuel remained the dominant cooking fuel in most households.

 

“Both have environmental and health implications, especially on women and girls who are mainly responsible for cooking,” it said.

 

The report said Ghana had enough solar, wind and mini-hydro resources to provide off-grid and mini-grid solutions to meet rural electrification.

 

It said deforestation rates in Ghana were among the hghest in Africa, with current levels of wood fuel consumption far exceeding forest growth.

 

Human security

 

The report said fire outbreaks, particularly market fires, were another source of human insecurity in the country.

 

“Many lives and property running into millions of Ghana cedis were also lost to fire outbreaks from 2011 to 2013,” it said.

 

The report mentioned unreliable electricity supply, the free fall of the cedi and illegal commercial motorbike transport services locally known as ‘Okada’ as some of the human security issues.

 

On elections, it said despite the country’s touted image as a beacon of peace and democracy in a troubled region, contested presidential and parliamentary election results constituted potential threat to political security of the country.

 

According to the report, the food insecurity in the rural areas of the three regions of the north now was worse than that of the period preceding 2012. 

 

“The current poverty situation in Ghana is also a security threat; there is heightened inequality for some regions and socio-economic groups,” it said.

 

Health

 

The report said the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was improving access to health care but its challenges, including its solvency, called for several policy changes.

 

For instance, the report proposed an increase in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) premiums and the implementation of the intended unitary scheme.

 

“Efforts are also needed to sustain the NHIS financially, particularly in the light of shrinking government and donor funding for the health sector,”

 

Education 

 

The report observed that there was an increasing privatisation of tertiary education, with one private university in each of the 10 regions.

 

It said out of the 55 listed degree-granting private universities and colleges, 36 were located in Accra and Tema.

 

The report found out that tertiary level education received less policy and research attention than the basic and secondary levels.

 

ISSER Director

 

The Director of ISSER, Prof. Felix Asante, stressed that the power outages, which resulted from the failure of successive governments to adequately address the country’s energy needs, “presents a big threat to the nation’s socio-economic development drive.”

 

Generally, he said, the country’s economic gains were hardly adequate and did not correlate with social development advancement.