The Volta River Authority (VRA) has offered to provide competitive pricing in the power sector to local industries as to ease the cost of operations as the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) kick starts in 2020.

The Association of Ghana Institute (AGI) in its 2nd Quarter Business Barometer Report cited the cost of power as the key driver to the collapse of many local manufacturing industries.

Speaking at the ongoing Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition, Chief Executive of the VRA, Ing. Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa charged the AGI to use this intervention as a catalyst for industrial growth.

“We in VRA are on the forefront to deliver power (at least from the generation perspective) in single-digit US cents. In order words, all generating firms must endeavour to deliver power less than 10 cents per kilowatts power. We want to hold your hands and give you completive power to enable you to stand the chance to compete on the global stage.”

Meanwhile, President of the AGI, Dr Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, has called for benchmark values and straight levies be scrapped if not reviewed in the 2020 budget.

According to him, aside concerns of the high cost of power these levies continue to cripple local businesses.

“We will not hesitate to bring government’s attention to any policies that will be inimical to our growth such as the benchmark value reduction and the introduction of the trade value which we hope will be reviewed in the 2020 budget,” Dr Yaw Adu-Gyamfi expressed.

The AGI Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition is on the theme, ‘Strengthening Ghanaian Industries for Global Competitiveness.’ It ends on Thursday, September 12.

The conference was to create a forum for interaction and matchmaking among major oil operations such as Tullow Oil and its major contractors alongside local exhibitions and conference participants from several industries and professional bodies ranging from supply chain logistics, legal and ICT to the academia.