K.T Hammond’s 2.5-MW claim, a blatant “lie” – Murtala

Deputy Trades Minister Murtala Muhammed has described as a blatant “lie”, a claim by former Deputy Energy Minister K.T Hammond that the Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has, since 2009, added only 2.5 megawatts to Ghana’s total installed power capacity.

“It is a lie,” Mr Muhammed told Bernard Nasara Saibu in an interview in Parliament during a post-state of the nation address analysis.

Mr Muhammed rebuffed the claim when Mr Hammond repeated the assertion during a two-man debate and challenged the Asokwa Adansi MP to prove his allegation.

At a recent press conference on the current worsening power crisis, Mr Muhammed said there was “overwhelming” evidence to show that the Government of the Kufuor administration did better in its two terms from 2000 to 2008 as far as the energy sector is concerned, than the six years that the NDC has been in power.

The Minority Spokesperson on energy at the press conference described the Government’s approach towards tackling the crisis as “lackadaisical,” adding that the Government has only added 2.5 megawatts of solar power to the nation’s installed capacity so far.

The former deputy minister was making reference to the Navrongo Solar Power Plant, a 2MW facility, which was commissioned in 2013. It has been described by the Volta River Authority (VRA) as the largest grid photovoltaic (PV) plant in West Africa besides those in Cape Verde.

The project cost USD 8,082,025 and was financed by state power producer Volta River Authority (VRA).

Drawing the comparison, the Legislator said the Kufuor administration was able to add 1,451 Megawatts to the nation’s installed capacity in eight years, explaining that the NPP “conceived the idea for, initiated, installed and assisted in the installation of 1,451.5megawatts of generation capacity”.