GHANA COMMENTARIES, by Anna Esi Hanson

Has the Volta River Authority, now turned from a power generation authority, into a power revenue authority? From Volta River Authority, into Volta Revenue Authority? Clearly in Ghana, a mere name change can be so expensive. When ordinary “Koobi” changes its name to Tilapia, it becomes very expensive. Yes, our beloved Volta River Authority seems to have assumed a new status; a revenue authority status because each day, the only news I hear from them is how much more they want to extract from this nation, in the name of power generation. They claim to be generating power, and yet, each day in our various cities, the reality hits us; there is no power! We keep paying, but receive no power. In Ghana today, it is one talk of a thermal plant after another. Each day, new thermal plants are being planned and cited. Various plants have been commissioned in the past year, and yet till date, no improvements have been noted. The situation is rather getting worse. Huge revenues are being ...

Only in Ghana! Imagine a whole parliamentarian, screaming foul on national media. And I asked myself, what is his beef? Apparently, his supposed HIPC fund had gone missing from the account. How was that possible, and why was the money sitting there in the first place. Apparently, as was his response, he was only saving the money for the next four or eight years, until it had substantiated enough for it to be used. A cock and bull story! It was more interesting, when a couple of days later, other parliamentarians joined in the pandemonium, all threatening to boycott parliament. Indeed, it is quite remarkable, how these parliamentarians find a common ground on monetary issues. Why the noise when we all know that the money would have been idle in the bank anyway? If it can idle for four years or even eight, as I heard that morning, I bet government can equally wait till four or eight years before disbursing it. What then would be the rationale for the funding anyway? Only in Gh...