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Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko has hinted that Ghana will supply 100 megawatts of power daily to Burkina Faso, and works on transmission lines from Bolgatanga to Burkina Faso for the supply has already begun.

He explained that Ghana supplying power to Burkina Faso is not a new thing. “We have been supplying power to Burkina Faso in a smaller quantity of 0.5 megawatts since 2003, but it moved to 9.2 megawatts in 2013, but it has now got to the point that Burkina Faso have embarked on a development agenda and need more power, and Ghana has agreed to supply power to a tune of 100 megawatts.”

Agyarko made this known when the Burkinabe Energy Minister, Professor Alfa Oumar Dissa, paid him a courtesy visit yesterday in Accra to address pertinent issues facing the two countries as far as energy is concerned.

According to the energy minister, power is an indicator of progress, and it is also one of the few commodities that citizens can mostly hold politicians accountable for.

One of the facets of developments that can transform the two countries most rapidly is power, and he stressed that it is important the two countries begin to discuss the power needs of their people.

He bemoaned that ECOWAS is a region of about 300 million people, but because ECOWAS countries are not acting together and in consonant, it has become impossible to derive the maximum benefit among its citizens.

“Those who want to exploit us will play us because we exist in small points, but going forward, we have to be of absolute resolve, and together we can do what is required for the benefit of our people,” he lamented.

At the meeting, it was also revealed that Ghana is in talks with Burkina Faso for the construction of a petroleum pipeline from Buipe in the Northern Region to Bingo in Burkina Faso.

The pipelines, according to Agyarko, will be used to transport finished petroleum products to Burkina to get rid of unscrupulous petroleum transporters.

He said it is, therefore, important to adopt a modern practice of moving these products out of the country through a well engineered pipeline system.

On the issue of the Bagre Dam, the Burkinabe energy minister assured Ghana that Burkina has embarked on a project to build another dam to contain the excess water the dam produces.

He assured the annual deludes of water from Bagre Dam, which has caused a lot of destruction of property and lives in the Northern Region, will be a thing of the past.

“Burkina Faso is taking the extra step to trap the water, possibly for power generation, irrigation and slower release into Ghana’s space,” he added.

He emphasised that Ghana and Burkina have met to look at the implementation of some of the programmes that will inure to the benefit of the people.

Professor Dissa presented an undisclosed package to Agyarko as a sign of stronger bond between the two countries.