At a press conference on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, the Minority chided the Akufo-Addo government over its management of the power sector.
The Minority in Parliament has proposed 10 ways that the challenges in the power sector can be addressed.
Dumsor: Minority proposes 10 ways the government can end power challenges
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Several Ghanaians across the country have been left frustrated by the irregular supply of power to their homes in recent months.
Some weeks ago, there was a nationwide power outage as a result of a total system collapse in the transmission network.
“Dumsor is back; give us the timetable” – Kumasi residents demand
Pulse Ghana
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In the last few weeks, residents in Accra and Kumasi have also been hit very hard by the frequent power outages.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has since released a load-shedding timetable for parts of the Greater Accra Region spanning May 10 – 17, 2021.
The ECG explained that this was to allow its engineers to do critical works at the Pokuase Bulk Supply Point.
Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, said the government must come clean on the actual cause of the power outages.
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Addressing the media, he listed 10 things that the government must do to halt the power challenges:
1. The Energy sector players must be proactive and inform (Publish a schedule) electricity consumers who will be affected by these outages in advance so that affected customers can take remedial steps to mitigate the effect of such outages.
2. Government must cut down on wasteful expenditure and Inject the much-needed capital into the power sector especially GRIDCo to make up for the impaired cash flow of these utilities.
3. Government must desist from political interference in the management of the Energy sector. Consequently, Government must refrain from engaging in political appointments especially within middle management levels when vacancies are declared.
4. Government and its communicators must desist from engaging in the propaganda on excess capacity and come out with a formula for absorbing capacity charges as part of operating cost.
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5. Power sector managers must ensure that they pursue Long term planning to ensure fuel security for generating assets at the least cost possible.
6. Government must allow Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to take the responsibility for their fuel supply requirements.
7. Immediate steps must be taken to aggressively address ECG’s spiralling technical and commercial losses currently estimated by its worker unions at 34%
8. The Ministry of Energy must conduct a comprehensive reconciliation of the total indebtedness of all players including government and its SOEs including (GNPC, GNGC, VRA, GRIDCo, CENIT, ECG, NEDCo) in a transparent manner.
9. The Ministry of finance must take steps to utilize the $1 billion sovereign bond borrowed in 2020 to address the financial challenges of the Energy sector.
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10. Government must ensure that Energy sector SOEs Publish details of their financial statements including details and ageing of their indebtedness as well as debts owed to them on time.
