Film Producers go wild over 'dumsor' in Kumasi

Hundreds of protesters Thursday evening joined a vigil organised by the nation’s film producers in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, to demand an end to the power crisis which has crippled industries and made life uncomfortable for many in the last three years.

The vigil came off after government’s attempts to foil it failed to yield dividend. There have been promises to offer generators to the producers and other members in the creative industry.

The protesters, who were made up of many young professionals, traders, movie stars and ordinary residents of Kumasi, defiled a heavy downpour to attend the vigil march that was aimed to register the film producers’ displeasure against the ongoing erratic power supply in the country.

It was the second vigil march in the country to be staged by some Ghanaians against dumsor – the popular Ghanaian term used to describe the irregular and unpredictable electric power supply.

Government had said the three-year-old power outages were caused by an energy supply shortage, with the nation’s generating capacity hovering between 400 and 600 megawatts which is less than Ghana needs, thereby forcing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to regularly shed load with persistent blackouts.

Thousands of people took part in a “DumsorMustStop” vigil in the nation’s capital recently after moves to stop it had failed amidst demonization and bastardisation of organisers by some apparatchiks of the present administration.

During the latest demonstration, people marched through the streets of Kumasi and later joined other crowds at the vigil at the Jubilee Park where leaders of the Film Producers’ Association of Ghana (FPAG) addressed them.

James Aboagye, General Secretary of FPAG, said the persistent power outages were killing the movie industry as patrons complained of not having electricity to power their machines to watch them.

According to him, in as much as they did not have the needed funds to buy generator sets, they looked forward to a quick solution to the problem for the industry to bounce back.

He said the protest vigil had nothing to do with politics, and that it had become imperative for them to join other Ghanaians to call for an immediate end to dumsor for the benefit of the country’s economic growth and to sustain jobs.