President John Dramani Mahama has announced a bold, long-term plan to develop a new Green Digital City intended to decongest Accra by relocating key government agencies and critical offices, as part of a broader vision to integrate energy innovation with industrial transformation.
The President made the announcement on Thursday at Dawa in the Greater Accra Region during a sod-cutting ceremony for the landmark 200MWp Solar for Industries (SFI) project, a step towards powering Ghana's industrial zones with clean and affordable energy.
Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, the Deputy Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Richard Gyan Mensah, and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo.
The new city, which the President described as a 20-year project, will stretch from the Dawa Industrial Zone, incorporating the Saglemi Housing Estate, through the Bundase Military Range, into the Volta and Eastern regions.
"This will be a new city that will attract investment, it will attract tourism, it will be a smart city," President Mahama said.
"It will have a modern drainage system, it will have good sanitation, there will be no kiosks and containers in that city, and people will not be walking by the roadside," he added.
He elaborated that the city would be meticulously planned with distinct enclaves for industry, residences, offices, commerce and finance.
The President revealed that the feasibility study and design for this ambitious city were set to commence by the end of the year, with the Minister of Finance already making budgetary provisions for the initial phases.
The immediate focus of the ceremony was the SFI project, developed by Park Solar in partnership with Quarm Investments and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with technical cooperation from Chinese EPC contractors.
President Mahama described the project as a pivotal shift towards renewable industrial energy, central to the government's 24-hour economy and industrial recovery agenda.
"This facility will produce clean, stable, and affordable electricity dedicated to Ghana's manufacturing and export zones. When we launched the RESET agenda, we pledged to make energy the catalyst for inclusive industrialisation, " he said.
He noted that the initiative was key to helping Ghanaian industries remain competitive amid evolving global trade regulations, such as the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which penalised exports with a high carbon footprint.
Private sector role
The President expressed profound gratitude to the project partners, particularly singling out the IFC for its work.
Reflecting on lessons from past ventures, the President robustly defended the role of the private sector in public utilities, citing the success of Enclave Power Limited within the Free Zones Enclave, which boasts a 99 per cent bill collection rate and consistent power supply.
"PDS was not a bad thing. It is just that it was handled wrongly, and many people had personal interest in PDS, and that's why it failed. But there's something to be said for injecting private sector efficiency into public utilities," he said.
He announced that his government intended to pilot private sector involvement in rehabilitating and managing broken-down small-town water systems, and to continue efforts to bring private efficiency to the last point of power distribution and revenue collection.
