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Minister of Petroleum, Hon. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (MP) yesterday, 10th November 2015, affirmed Governments plans to improve and increase access to LPG in rural areas from the current 3% in 2012 to 15% by the end of 2016.

Hon. Buah made this known during this year’s Clean Cooking Forum held at Alisa Hotel in Accra. The event, being held for the first time in West Africa, is part of a global effort to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient
cookstoves and fuels. Organized by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Forum features four days of meetings, panel discussions and cultural events, as well as showcasing Ghana's own progress on the clean cooking issue.

In Ghana, it is estimated that about 13,700 deaths occur every year as a result of smoke related illnesses. In 2010, Household Air Pollution (HAP) from solid fuels was the third leading risk factor for global disease burden.

Hon. Buah officially opened the forum and made it known that Government is implementing a Nationwide LPG accelerated Promotion Program including the Cylinder Recirculation Model to ensure safety and increase access to LPG and cook stoves. “Government aims to provide cleaner, healthier and safer form of cooking fuel and ultimately to reduce the number of Ghanaians who die from Household Air Pollution (HAP) every year. “One way we can achieve this is to
stop using solid fuel and accept the use of LPG for our household activities because LPG is proven to be clean, safe and efficient”, he added.

Policy

Hon. Buah announced that, the Ministry of Petroleum has completed the of the National Policy on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Promotion. The policy is to ensure that at least 50% of Ghanaians have access to safe and environmental friendly LPG for commercial, industrial and domestic use by 2020.

Making LPG accessible to Ghanaians

Under the Rural LPG Programme, Government distributes free cylinders, cook stoves and all related accessories to beneficiaries in low access and low income areas in districts across the nation. This is done to enable rural dwellers switch easily from wood fuels to LPG without paying for the initial investment costs. Last year the Ministry of Petroleum distributed 13,000 cylinders, cook stoves and related accessories to households in the three Northern Regions, Central,
Western and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana. This year, the distribution was scaled up to 40,000 cylinders and cook stoves. So far the Ministry of Petroleum has been able to distribute 20,000 cylinders and cook stoves in eight districts and hopes to distribute additional 20,000 cylinders and cook stoves by the end of the year.

Increasing domestic LPG supply

To ensure that the days of shortage of LPG in Ghana becomes a thing of the past, Hon. Buah stated that Government successfully, through its Ghana National Gas Company completed the Atuabo Gas Project which commenced
commercial operations in April 2015 and was officially commissioned by His Excellency the President on September 16, 2015. The new Gas Processing Plant, aside from delivering over 100mmscf of lean gas per day for thermal plants to
generate power is also currently producing 500 tons of LPG a day for the domestic market. The plant is also on track to produce more than 180,000 metric tons of LPG per year amounting to over 50% of the present estimated 360,000
metric tons annual LPG national demand.

“The people of Ghana are therefore well positioned to obtain regular supply of LPG from Atuabo in addition to the
current imports and thereby prevent a situation where consumers of LPG are forced to return to the use of firewood because of the unavailability of the product on the market. “All these efforts are also aimed towards creating wealth and employment opportunities for Ghanaians to ensure that domestic LPG produced at our gas processing plant in Atuabo, benefits all Ghanaians” he added.

Other Speakers

In attendance were Nicholas Manu, CEO CookClean Ltd & Board Chairman of Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Brian Smith, COO Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Radha Muthiah, CEO Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Azaglo Faith Asi, Ghana Girls Guide, Rocky Dawuni, International Musician and Alliance ambassador and the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.