The president was addressing Muslims celebrating the Eid Mubarak on Wednesday, when he acknowledged current problems with energy supply in the country. He however, sought to correct the impression that the country had gone back to the days of dumsor.
Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, last week announced that the country would have to shed 300 Mega Watts of power, owing to the shortfall in the supply of light crude from VRA’s Nigerian suppliers.
This meant that thermal plants in the Aboadze enclave did not have enough power to provide steady supply of power.
In his address to the Muslim gathering on Wednesday, President Mahama said,
“We are not declaring load shedding; I believe things will normalize but we are taking steps everyday to ensure that Ghana has security when it comes to power”.
This declaration is contrary to statements by Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor the Ministry will release a loadshedding timetable this week if supply of light crude does not stabilize.
In order to forestall future occurrences of the problem, President Mahama says he has ordered the Bulk Oil Storage Company to keep a minimum of one month’s supply of light crude oil for emergencies such as these.
“I have asked the Bulk Oil Storage Company to start storing at least one month of light crude oil supply for Ghana so that in the event anything happens at the supply end in Nigeria, we are not affected the way we are being affected right now”, the president said.