By Edward Acquah, GNA
Accra, Nov. 12, GNA – Ghana will invest US$200 million in a 24-month programme to prepare the country for the construction of its first nuclear power plant.
The programme, running from January 2027 to December 2028, is expected to culminate in the signing of an engineering, procurement, construction and financing contract for a fully state-owned nuclear plant.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, Minister of Finance, announced this when presenting the 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on Thursday.
He said the programme would cover site suitability, technology selection, environmental assessment, financing, licensing, safeguards, emergency planning and safety requirements.
“By December 2028, our target is to complete nuclear power readiness and sign the engineering, procurement, construction and financing contract for a fully state-owned nuclear base load power plant,” he said.
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Dr Forson clarified that completing the readiness programme would not mean electricity generation would begin in 2028, but would prepare the country to enter into a construction contract.
He said the plant would be a strategic national asset and would not operate under an Independent Power Producer (IPP) arrangement.
International partners would provide technology, financing, engineering and specialist services, while the Government retained ownership, he said.
Government also plans to train more than 2,000 Ghanaian scientists to develop local expertise for the nuclear power programme.
“Energy sovereignty means Ghana must have control over the generation and transmission of the electricity that powers our economy,” he said.
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Ghana is targeting the integration of its first nuclear power plant into the national electricity generation mix by 2030.
Nsuban in the Western Region has been identified as the preferred site, with Obotan in the Central Region as an alternative, following technical assessments by Ghanaian experts.
The programme follows President John Dramani Mahama’s announcement in October 2026 that Ghana had initiated discussions with Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Rosatom, on establishing the country’s first nuclear power station.
The proposed plant is expected to provide baseload electricity to complement hydropower and thermal generation.
Beyond nuclear energy, Dr Forson announced plans for a fully state-owned 600-megawatt solar plant with 2,000 megawatt-hours of battery storage and a 1,450-megawatt thermal power plant.
He said the investments would support the phase-out of all emergency power plants by December 2030.
Government would also invest US$500 million between 2027 and 2030 to modernise the transmission network and deploy two million prepaid meters to reduce distribution losses.
Performance-based private sector participation in electricity distribution would be fully implemented by the end of 2027, while strategic public assets would remain protected, he said.
The investments are expected to eliminate the Government’s annual US$1.4 billion expenditure on energy sector shortfalls and reduce the cost of power generation from about 16 US cents to eight US cents or less per kilowatt-hour.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Edward Acquah
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