Member of Parliament (MP) for Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region, Edward Abambire Bawa, has blamed the country’s continuous power outages on government’s inadequate funds to procure fuel for power generators.
His comments come on the back of recent power rationing across the country.
Government, in its initial statements attributed the power falls to the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPCo) maintenance works.
However, Edward Bawa believes that, Ghana’s power rationing is as a result of government having no funds to procure fuel for power generators.
“By a stroke of good fortune, the maintenance works on the Gas Pipeline was completed ahead of schedule and gas supply has since resumed. The maintenance works on the Gas Pipeline was completed ahead of schedule and gas supply has since resumed. So, what could be the real reason for the continuous power outages? The reason is that government has no money to procure fuel for the power generators to produce power”.
He further attributed government’s supposed inability to procure fuel for power generation to a severe financial crisis in the power sector.
Mr Bawa said, “Ghana’s power sector is confronted with severe financial threats notwithstanding the energy sector levy (ESLA) introduced by the previous administration and bequeathed to the present Government. Indeed, the sector is currently experiencing unprecedented financial crisis. The net sector arrears stand at about US$ 4.0 Billion. Of this indebtedness, a whopping US$1.5 Billion is owed to the private sector including IPPs.”
The politician added that, the low level of electricity production will likely plunge country into dreaded blackouts soon.
“If nothing is done, electricity production will grind to a halt and deprive Ghanaians of regular and adequate supply of power for domestic and commercial use. The current power outages is symptomatic of a bigger problem that will eventually plunged this country into the dreaded dumsor.”
Government must treat power as a national security concern and present a blueprint on how to resolve erratic supplies, he noted.
The Bongo MP further urged government to stop politicizing power issues in the country.
“In the meantime, the government should be honest to Ghanaians, and instruct ECG and NEDCo, the two distribution companies, to as a matter of urgency publish a load shedding timetable so that people can plan their lives around this avoidable situation.”