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AGI welcomes end of power crisis with caution

The power ministry yesterday December 30, 2015 declared an end to the country's protracted three year load shedding exercise in a press statement.

 

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has welcomed the power ministry’s announcement of an end to the country’s load shedding exercise that has collapsed small businesses, and made citizens uncomfortable, with caution.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of AGI, Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah, the constant power supply during this festive period could be due to the fact that most industries are on break and the power they consume is added to homes, he told Accra based Joy FM.

He said: “We always take some of these things with a bit of caution because, at this particular moment, industries are not in operation and, therefore, most of the power that they consume is being added to homes, so that makes it look good, but let us wait for next year and see how it goes,”

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“There was a challenge with purchase of power, so, if today we managed to buy enough crude oil and, therefore, the thermal plants are working, three months down the line what will the situation be like?” he said.

A statement from the Power Ministry signed by Kweku Sesah Johnson said: “The Ministry of Power wishes to inform the public that its load-shedding programme, in respect of electricity supply, has been brought to an end.”

“The Ministry takes this opportunity to express its profound gratitude and appreciation to the entire citizenry and residents of Ghana for their forbearance and understanding during those difficult times. The Ministry and its agencies wish to assure the public that they shall continue to pursue policies and programmes to consolidate the gains so far made in generation and transmission of electricity for the country,” the statement said.

However, the power ministry’s announcement was sharply contradicted by the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), William Amuna.

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He told Kumasi based Ultimate Radio that the country’s load shedding exercise is not over yet.

‘I wouldn’t say the load shedding exercise is over but now we have enough generation to supply to the whole of Ghana, and we want to make sure that we maintain that,’ he said.

According to him, power was not shed during the yuletides, adding that there is enough power generation to man the demand.

‘As you may realise since the 24 December, 2015 we have not been shedding load, this is because, we had enough generation to man the demand that we have now,’ he stated.

In 2014 alone, Ghana lost over two billion dollars due to the national power crisis, according to a report from the University of Ghana.

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