Ghana has opened talks with Russia's State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Rosatom, on building the country's first nuclear power station, President John Dramani Mahama said on 29 October. He was speaking at the Third Russia-Africa summit in Moscow, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have initiated discussions with Rosatom on the establishment of Ghana's first nuclear power station,” Mahama said, according to published coverage of his speech. The reports of the speech give no capacity, cost, site or timeline, and no signed agreement.
What Mahama said in Moscow
Mahama called inadequate electric power a major obstacle to Africa's progress and said Russia has a comparative advantage in renewables and nuclear energy. He recalled that the Soviet Union gave Ghana a two-megawatt research reactor in 1964 and that Ghanaian nuclear scientists were trained in Russia to operate it.
Beyond energy, he called for local currencies and digital payment systems to settle legitimate Africa-Russia trade, and invited Russian businesses to partner on agro-processing, fertiliser production, pharmaceuticals and transport infrastructure. He also welcomed Russia's willingness to resume trilateral talks on Ukraine, according to the coverage.
The 2,000MW claim
On 31 October, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X that Russia had agreed to work with Ghana towards a 2,000-megawatt nuclear plant, and that Mahama had secured the commitment in direct talks with Putin. The post also listed a new defence pact, agricultural cooperation and more scholarships.
Those are the minister's claims. The 2,000MW figure does not appear in the reports of Mahama's own speech, which describe discussions rather than an agreement. We have not seen a signed document or a statement from Rosatom or the Russian government.
