The opposition New Patriotic Party has accused the ruling government for destroying the legacy built by former President John Agyekum Kufuor in the energy sector.
This comes at the back of the shortfall of power supply the country is facing.
At a press briefing in Accra, General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyapong, said former President John Kufuor left Ghana an adequate energy legacy.
He noted that the current Government under the leadership of President John Mahama has messed up that heritage. “When we (NPP) left power in 2009 as a Government, we believe we left the NDC with adequate generating capacity.“They should tell us the truth. What is happening? Today they tell you: ‘It’s gas from Nigeria. The next day: ‘There is no money to buy light crude oil.’”
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“The Government should come clean. There’s incompetence in the running of the power sector and the overload on state power producer, Volta River Authority (VRA) is impacting their capacity to import the crude that will work the power plants,” he added.
According to him, “All the projects that were initiated during President Kufuor’s time, some of them have been commissioned during the NDC administration, so a lot of capacity have been added, but…the poor handling of the economy, and the stress that has been put on the finances of the treasury, is making it very difficult for them to procure the crude that is required to run some of these plants.”
Irregular power supplies have had a toll on Industry and domestic consumers and had to contend with the unplanned load-shedding management schedule due to production deficits.
The production deficit, which has led to the load shedding, has come about, according to the President, as a result of low level of water in the Akosombo, Bui and Kpong dams, as well as the lack of gas supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline in Nigeria (WAGPco) to power thermal plants in the country.
The power crisis is far from over. The situation appears hopeless with Ghana currently shedding between 450 and 650 Megawatts of power during off-peak and peak periods, respectively, as against the planned 250 and 350 Megawatts.