The Ashanti Development Union is demanding regular power supply to industrial zones in the region, according to a statement signed by Coordinator Edmund Oppong-Peprah.
The group says the irregular power situation is crippling industries in the region.
Between 440 and 650 Megawatts of power is shed daily during off-peak and peak hours, respectively due to a production shortfall that has come about as a result of lack of gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline to power thermal plants in the country, as well as poor hydrology in Ghana’s three hydro-electric power plants: Akosombo, Bui and Kpong, coupled with a breakdown of some plants.
The Government is seeking sponsorship from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to purchase two power barges with a combined capacity of 450 Megawatts at a cost of $250 million towards mitigating the crisis.
To save Industry and businesses, the group has suggested that the region’s industrial enclaves be exempted from the outages.
“Indeed as a Commercial Hub of the Country, such a situation threatens to cause irreparable damage to the economy of the region. ADU calls on government to take immediate and urgent steps to ensure that at least industrial and commercial activities obtain reliable power supply for production.
“The recent statements by the government apparatus on how it intends to resolve the energy crisis in the short term, though long overdue, is still not reassuring enough, let alone the long term,” the statement added, saying: “The people of the Region have heard such promises before, which came to naught!”
ADU has, therefore, outlined some measures it wants the President to take toward resolving the crisis.
“As the President of the Republic of Ghana his Excellency John Dramani Mahama presents the State of the Nation’s address on the 26th of February 2015, ADU expects to hear nothing but the following: 1. Pragmatic measures adopted to resolve the energy crisis both long term and short term 2. Measures to forestall future occurrence 3. Concrete steps being taken presently on the energy sector front 4. Government making the availability of energy its priority 5. Immediate constant power to the Industrial and Commercial enclaves in Kumasi.”
“ADU calls on Government to provide, immediately, uninterrupted supply of power to the industrial and business enclaves such as Suame Magazine, Asafo Auto Works and Publications, Kaase, Adum, and Kajetia.
“The need for reliable power supply to these critical commercial and industrial hubs is to prevent further loss of jobs and incomes, and to restore human dignity,” the statement said.
The group has also called on all its members and citizens of the region to express their dissatisfaction towards the power crisis by joining a demonstration scheduled for Wednesday February, 25 2015.
The protest march is being organised by the NPP’s Ashanti regional branch with the support of other political parties.
