By Osagie Alonge
Ghana’s Energy Commission has made a ban on the import of second-hand refrigerators coming into the country in an effort to reduce energy consumption and harm to the environment.
‘Many old fridges contain chemicals called Chlorofluorocarbons which damage the Earth’s ozone layer’, BBC reports.
The head of Ghana’s energy commission explained to the BBC the ban made Ghana ‘a pioneer in West Africa’.
The ban was however first introduced in 2008 but the commission soft-pedalled to give dealers time to adjust to the changes.
Despite the four-year extension, some Ghanaian traders have received the ban negatively, saying thousands of jobs will be lost.
‘The second-hand refrigerators are harming the country as they were not built for use in Africa and so consume too much electricity’, the energy commission head Alfred Ofosu-Ahenkora explains
The commission says some two million used fridges have been imported to Ghana, mainly from the European Union.
CFCs are banned under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
