The Export-Import Bank of the US announced it will loan a small US business $344 million for equipment and services to electrify Ghana. Weldy-Lamont Associates Inc., a 13-employee engineering firm based in Mount Prospect, IL, was awarded a contract to expand the electricity transmission system for phase four of Ghana’s Self Help Electrification Project (SHEP IV).
The company will provide procurement, engineering, installation, and management services for SHEP IV. An estimated 45% of the contract price will go to small businesses as Weldy-Lamont will be contracting US suppliers from the “Midwest to California to Florida to Georgia,” said Weldy-Lamont President Patrick J. Hennelly. He added that by utilizing these smaller companies, it would aid the US housing market that has been the source of recent US economic woes.
Weldy-Lamont began as a subcontractor, but based on previous experience and work on the Ghanaian project, the company was asked to become the primary contractor.
The goal of the Ghanaian Government is to bring electricity to all villages nationwide by 2020 according to its 1989 National Electrification Plan. The Volta River, the site of two hydro plants, will have a power transmission facility to connect the region downstream of the Volta River to the existing nationwide electricity network.