Solar solution ends 25-year power woes at Katamanso Health Centre

The Katamanso Health Centre has inaugurated a solar project to efficiently deliver life-saving healthcare services around the clock within the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality and its environs.

The intervention brings to an end the frequent power disruptions that have compelled medical personnel to depend on mobile phones and flashlights to assist women in labour to be delivered of their babies at the facility for the last 25 years.

Worth GH¢150,000, the renewal energy solution was funded and installed by  Tino Solutions Limited, a renewable energy provider, to provide reliable and sustainable power to the health facility.

The project involved the installation of a four-kilowatt peak solar generator with a three-kilowatt converter and 10-kilowatt hour storage designed to power essential medical equipment and enhance overall healthcare services.

The solar energy would not only supply power to the maternity unit but also to the Outpatient Department (OPD) and other units to improve general healthcare in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality located in the Greater Accra Region.

Second most populated municipality

Addressing the media after an event to unveil the new solar project at the health facility in Accra, the Director of Health Service at the Kpone Katamanso Municipality, Dr Esther Priscilla Biamah, said the centre, though serving the second most populated municipality in the country with a population of about 56,556, was highly under-resourced.

This, she said, often pushed health professionals at the facility to go the extra mile and even use personal resources to provide services and save lives.

“The centre, which serves the most populous municipality in the Greater Accra Region, and the second in the country, has long faced challenges with electricity, forcing midwives to resort to using phone torchlights during nighttime deliveries.    

“And so, we are grateful to Tino Solutions for bringing this life-changing technology to our health centre. This solar power system will not only improve our working conditions but also enhance the quality of care we provide to our patients,” she said.

With the solution, she said the facility could now be able to harness more solar power and reduce its reliance on the national grid supply from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

She said the centre was the only facility serving the Katamanso, Santor, East Legon Hills and Ashiaman-Atadeka communities, hence the need for corporate support to expand the facility to meet the needs of the people.

She said the facility recorded 4,848 OPD attendance in 2023 and 6,081 in 2024, a significant growth, while in terms of newborn deliveries, the numbers increased from 267 to 338 in 2024.

Corporate social initiative

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tino Solutions Limited, Postino Dugle, said as part of the company’s 20th anniversary, the management decided to support about five health institutions as part of its corporate social initiatives and the Katamanso Health Centre’s situation was mentioned which prompted the swift response to intervene.

“We challenged ourselves to give back to society after chalking 20 years of success.

We believe it is important that we give back to the society where we operate and so this project is to ensure that the facility has an uninterrupted power supply.

“We will be helping other four health facilities for support in the coming months,” he said.

He said the solar system was made up of a four-kilowatt peak power generator with three kilowatts of inventor and 10-hour kilowatts storage.