Public-private partnership in Ghana's solar energy industry: The history, current state, challenges, prospects and theoretical perspective

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been used as a viable tool to accelerate infrastructural development in many countries. In recent years, the repercussions of climate change have heightened the need to adopt cleaner energy sources such as solar. Ghana has attempted investments in solar energy for obvious advantages such as ensuring energy security, cost advantage and expansion of rural electrification. PPPs have been adopted in various sectors of Ghana's economy including transport, construction, education, energy and health but the extent of success is arguable. This paper throws light on the history, current state, the challenges and prospects of the solar sector in Ghana. Issues such as accountability and transparency, tensions due to land litigation, politicisation of PPPs and poor bargaining abilities due to low knowledge of PPP agreements are established in this paper as hindrances to PPPs in Ghana. Indeed, Ghana has a huge prospect for solar energy and if PPPs are treated as a ‘Game’ of fairness or with the ‘Parito Optimality’ notion rather than with an ‘altruistic incline’, investor confidence may potentially rise. It is also recommended that, the current national policy on PPP under Ghana's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) must be enhanced and implemented fully in order to boost investor confidence in the solar sector.