University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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communities have to contend and be content with an under-developed agro-based
industry. This agro-based industry lacks proper incentives to help them add value to
their produce. Inadequate infrastructure in the context of storage facilities as well as
good transport network exposes these rural dwellers to opportunist middlemen who
offer to take their produce at less than the realistic market price. Consequently, rural
economic development is hindered since they lack enough compensation for their
hard work resulting in their inability to save some of their earnings – resulting in a
cyclical nature of poverty.
Robin Hood as a theorem – denotes taking from the rich and giving to the poor thus
becoming a proposed model recommended by this study to help policy makers to
resolve energy distribution for both urban and rural sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
The concept of ‘taking’ in the theorem denotes weaning the urban dwellers off the
main grid to help allocate the excess capacity to the rural area. The urban dwellers
then are then encouraged to adapt to renewable energy. The benefits of this proposal
thus become sound due to the fact that the urban dwellers possess the highest share
of the ‘national cake’ in the context of energy usage. Thus it is presumed that, such
urban dwellers are in better position to afford renewable energy.
An Overview Of Rural-Urban Energy Situation In Ghana
To ascertain the different types of energy used and why the Robin Hood theorem
merits consideration, a qualitative research was initiated. The objective of the study
is to carefully compare especially retail prices of most secondary energy systems
available to both urban and rural communities in Ghana: candles, dry cell batteries,
rechargeable lamps, car batteries and generators. For each of the energy system a
sample size of 10 retail outlets at different regions were considered.
The questions used to derive at the objective include:
1. How much does a XXX costs?
2. What are the main uses of XXX?
3. How often do people buy the specific XXX?
4. Why is a particular secondary source of energy purchased?
The same questions were coined from this premise for the different energy systems