President Mahama assures recent power outages are not ‘dumsor’

• Mahama says recent power outages are due to upgrades, not a return of “dumsor”.

• Government rolls out 2,500 transformers to replace ageing and overloaded units.

• Authorities promise improved stability and advance notice for planned outages.

President John Dramani Mahama has assured Ghanaians that recent power outages are the result of ongoing upgrades and not a return to the prolonged electricity crisis known as “dumsor”.

Speaking during an inspection of equipment for the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), he said the disruptions are linked to efforts to improve power stability across the country.

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“I’ll appeal to our people. The outages you are facing are not ‘dumsor.’ It is to enable you to get better quality and stable power,” he said.

He disclosed that government has procured about 2,500 transformers to replace ageing and overloaded units, noting that population growth has increased pressure on existing infrastructure.

“At that time, the population of Ghana was much smaller than it is today, I think some 19 million or 18 million; today we’re 33 million,” he said. “And it means that all our communities are expanding.”

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The President said older transformers can no longer meet demand in many areas.

“You can imagine that the transformer was installed 22 years ago. And since then, the community has expanded beyond the capacity of the transformer; that’s why you have the lights being very unstable,” he added.

He expressed confidence that the intervention will improve power supply.

“We’re going to see stable power after this first phase. After that, constantly we’ll keep taking out the old transformers so that Ghana can have stable power,” he stated.

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President Mahama said residents will be informed ahead of planned outages.

“Anytime they are going to replace transformers, they'll inform the people in the area so that they are aware that their lights are going to be put off for a while,” he said.

He also welcomed local production of transformers.

“One of the things that I’m happy about is a lot of these transformers are produced locally in Ghana,” he noted.

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Minister for Energy and Green Transition John Abdulai Jinapor said installations have begun in parts of the country.