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Mr Jay Ireland, Global President and Chief Executive Officer of General Electric (GE), said the company had plans to build a 1000 megawatt power generating plant in Ghana to support government�s efforts at increasing the nation�s generating capacity. GE�s proposed plans come on the heels of recent agreements in other West African countries like Nigeria, whose government signed agreements on power generation, transport and healthcare. GE plans to ultimately generate at least 1.5GW on new power generation in the next five years across West and Central Africa. Mr Ireland said this during a short visit to Ghana as his first stop on his West Africa tour on April 4, 2013. In a statement released in Accra, he said there was huge potential in Ghana�s power sector and this, among other reasons, was what had stirred the company�s interest in making investments in the country. During the tour, Mr Ireland also paid a courtesy call on President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagstaff House in Accra. Mr Ireland led a team of top management officers from General Electric to visit the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, to discuss GE�s infrastructure investment plans for Ghana and share the scope of the company�s involvement in a number of current and planned projects. Mr Ireland said: �We at GE are excited about the opportunities existing in Ghana�s power sector and we have plans to become a part of this growing industry.� He said beyond the proposition of GE entering into the Ghanaian market, the company also had the capacity to bring in other investors in a bid to lead public private partnership (PPP) in the energy sector. Mr Ireland said his company was already liaising with some institutions to develop programmes for implementation and also working with some private partners for project development. Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, on his part, said; �It is a great development to know that General Electric is reaching out and making these efforts as these plans are also in line with the government�s vision of achieving 5000MW of power by the end of 2016�. He said Ghana was creating the necessary structures and enabling environment to attract the private to ensure that the country had a constant supply of power for economic growth. He said having been part of Ghana�s infrastructural growth for some time now, it was only prudent for GE to fully venture into power production, adding that the right environment awaited them.