Recent Consistent Power Cuts Due To Lack Of Money – Minority

The minority National Democratic Congress in Ghana’s Parliament has expressed worry about what it describes as ‘persitent consistent’power cuts across the country and called on government to open up and be truthful to Ghanaians about what the actual problem is.

According to the NDC, on February 28, 2024 alone, the country experienced power deficit of 530 megawats resulting in the truncation of power supply to neighbouring Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday February 29, 2024 at Parliament House, Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee, John Jinapor stated that the minority caucus sources have revealed that some thermal plants including TACO and TICO are currently down and not generating power which has resulted in power a shortage in the system.[

”The minority side has been monitoring the power situation for the past one month, and it appears based on the information available to us, the power sector is collapsing. 

Since 2nd February, we are talking about one month now , there is been persistent and consistent load shedding by the generation companies. Indeed, the load shedding is getting worse by the day, The day the president was delivering SONA and boasting, there was some load shedding happening”, Mr John Jinapor stated.

The minority spokesperson on energy alleged that the load shedding is largely due to the lack of funds for government to procure adequate fuel to fire thermal plants to generate power.

Mr Jinapor who is Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu constituency also called on government to tell Ghanaians about the challenge to enable them plan accordingly.

“Today at 12 pm, load shedding will commence again; our investigation indicates that some of our thermal plants are down, and there is a lack of fuel causing the load shedding. The handlers of the power sector should do the honourable thing by informing the people of Ghana so they can plan ahead of time.”

He also urged government to as a matter of urgency find money to procure fuel to power the generators.

In a related development, Deputy Energy Minister-designate Collins Adomako-Mensah assured Ghanaians that the recent power cuts, known as ‘dumsor’, will be fixed in the next two weeks.

“I admit that for the past two or three weeks, there have been some power outages, but it is interesting that the two-week power outages are causing the Minority to have a press conference. I am yet to fully settle into the [Energy] Ministry, but the little interaction I have had with the officers in the Ministry before my vetting is that this should be taken care of in the next two weeks,” Collins Adomako-Mensah said in the interview.

By: Christian Kpesese