'Power supply stabilised, our next target is price reduction' – Energy Minister

Minister of Energy Boakye Agyarko says government has succeeded in stabilizing the supply of power. “Our next mandate is to begin the reduction in pricing,” he pointed out.

He indicated that already the Ministry is getting cooperation from stakeholders to achieve the set target. “We believe that through this budget to the end of the year, we should be able to start bringing prices down,” he said on Wednesday at a press briefing in Accra.

Ghana had battled erratic power supply, popularly known as Dumsor, from late 2012 until 2016. The then National Democratic Congress (NDC) government said power production was gradually getting expensive and, so, consumers were made to pay more for a stable supply.

The cost of production is still a worry to consumers despite a promise by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reduce tariffs in one of his many campaign promises.

“We have to find the way of reducing the cost of production,” Mr Agyarko admitted, “and we are working on it.” He added: “We are getting a lot of cooperation.”

‘Adabraaka’ But a major issue within power supply chain is the privatization of the major distributor Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

On Tuesday, some staff of the Company demanded their severance packages as government gets ready to hand over the operations of the power firm to a new company. “Government must listen to us now,” the workers demanded on Tuesday during their picketing demonstration.