Ghana will kick off its quest for the World Cup championship on Monday afternoon against the United States, and the African nation is going to extreme measures to assure its people will be able to watch the game on television. According to Bloomberg, Ghana will boost power production during the World Cup by purchasing some electricity from Ivory Coast and asking its largest aluminum smelter to reduce consumption.
By having neighboring country Ivory Coast provide 50 megawatts of power and asking the Volta Aluminum Co. to cut back on its usual business, Ghanian officials hope its team’s World Cup matches will be enjoyed without interruption.
“These plans are put in place for consumers to watch uninterruptible football matches during the World Cup,” the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission said in a statement. “Within these arrangements the load-shedding schedule, though varied, still exists.”
Bloomberg also noted that Ghana will likely have to ration power through the first part of 2015, as the country has been experiencing a shortage of natural gas and low levels of water at hydroelectric plants. As expected, there has been some concern over how the World Cup plans will affect the economy.
“The government wants the people to have power so they can watch the game,” Yvonne Mhango, Johannesburg-based sub-Saharan Africa economist at Renaissance Capital, told Bloomberg. “The government should be concerned that if this was not budgeted for from the beginning of the year, it represents an additional cost on the annual budget.”
Ghana has officially taken World Cup fever to the next level.
H/T SI Wire
