Rode Ibru

Up until a year ago, the standard response to the problem of high oil prices was to provide subsidies which would reduce the domestic costs of fuel. However, as many associates of Rode Ibru have pointed out, these subsidies have some serious drawbacks. When the government of Ghana chose to subsidise prices ten years ago, just after the costs of imported oil started to skyrocket, considerable problems began to arise. Because the domestic fuel prices in Ghana were considerably lower than those in neighbouring countries, traders began to smuggle fuel out of Ghana, in order to sell it, for a profit, in Burkina and Togo. In addition to this, the government of Ghana struggled with the expense of the subsidies, which totalled two hundred million dollars. This money could easily have been used for development projects instead.
As such, subsidies are no longer considered to be a solution, and at the moment, most African countries are simply passing the added expense onto the consumer. However, the Ghanaian government are helping those with low incomes to offset the high costs of transportation and fuel, by eliminating or reducing primary school fees. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) assistant director, Mr Sanjeev Gupta, has acknowledged that this measure still does not fully compensate Ghanaian residents for the additional expense of fuel.
Rode Ibru is very interested in what development experts have to say about this; many argue that African countries which import oil must find new ways to reduce their dependency on this fuel. Both from an economic and an environmental standpoint, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources makes sense; energy needs continue to rise, and oil, gas and coal cause significant damage to the planet.
A number of African countries have begun to switch over to renewable sources which could potentially help them to reduce their dependency on expensive, environmentally-hazardous petroleum products. The alternatives include hydro-generators, solar panel systems and bio-fuels. Of course, some alternatives are not quite as feasible in certain African countries; all of them have their technical and economic drawbacks, and the costs associated with their installation are quite high. Moreover, issues surrounding policy making are complicating the installation of these systems in African nations. Friends of Rode Ibru believe that it will take considerable political will, and a great deal of capital to change t