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Trade Minister blames ex-president Kufour for power crisis
Spio Garbrah says the Kufour led NPP administration “hardly added any megawatt” of power to the national grid.
According to him, the Kufour led NPP administration “hardly added any megawatt” of power to the national grid.
“I’ve said we’ve had challenges for instance in the power sector and this is not a secret and the challenges in the power sector were not created by the NDC. They were created by governments like the NPP who during their era hardly added any megawatt of power to Ghana’s total power production capacity,” he said.
Spio-Garbrah was explaining the factors contributing to the partial shutdown of the revamped Komenda Sugar Factory.
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In terms of power generation, he said Ghana is ahead of most African countries.
Making a comparison with Nigeria, Spio-Garbrah said Nigeria with a population of 180 million people has 5,000 megawatts of power while Ghana with a population of 30 million people has 3,000 plus megawatts of power.
“In fact, there are about five or six West African countries which when put together have less power production than Ghana,” he added.
Despite the figures put out by the minister, businesses operating in Ghana complain of irregular power supply.
It became worse when government declared a power rationing exercise.
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Though there appear to be a stable power supply lately, the cost of electricity is throwing nascent companies out of business.
According to a research by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), businesses over the last three years lost $686.4 million due to the erotic power supply.
The ISSER said the crisis lowered the annual sales of Small and Micro businesses by about 37% to 48%. These figures were arrived at following the Opportunity Cost per Kilowatt analysis by ISSER's economic division.
But President John Mahama has promised to “fix” Ghana’s power challenges, accusing the former administrations of “managing” their way through the crisis.
“I do not intend to manage the situation. I intend to fix it. I John Dramani Mahama will fix the energy situation,” he said.
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He has launched an ambitious plan to make Ghana a “power hub” in West Africa.
He said Ghana will sell excess power to the West Africa power market for countries who need it.
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