Dumsor is collapsing businesses in Kumasi; give us power now – Osei Akoto to government

A former National Organiser aspirant of the NDC, Henry Osei Akoto, has criticised the Akufo-Addo government over the consistent, unannounced power outages in the country, saying the unpredictable power cuts, known in local parlance as ‘Dumsor’, are affecting businesses in the country.

Akoto, one of the leading members of the NDC made the comment when he joined some residents of Kumasi in the Ashanti Regional capital who were protesting the incessant power cuts in the city.

The vigil which took place Wednesday night, April 17 saw scores of traders and some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who were seen with placards with various inscriptions registering their displeasure at the development. Other protesters with red armbands were also seen with lit candles along the principal streets within the central business district.

Speaking to journalists, Henry Osei Akoto bemoaned the government’s failure to direct the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish a load shedding to help Ghanaians plan their activities.

“All we are asking Nana Akufo-Addo is to give us power, that's all. Apart from that there is nothing he can do for us. He should give us power so we can go back to our businesses… What we are telling Nana Akufo-Addo, the ECG, GRIDCo and all the independent power producers is that we need power. Businesses are collapsing. We need power,” he fumed.

A few weeks ago, Osei Akoto who visited Kumasi was seen in a viral video pointing to generator sets that had been put on to power some shops in Adum, in the central business district of the Ashanti Regional capital.

He was heard in Akan saying that the generator sets were in competition, stressing that there was an unannounced, persistent power outage in the city which was affecting businesses.

During the protest, he emphasised that the businesses were slowly collapsing since the cost of fuel was high and business owners could not afford to spend much to power their generators.

On his part, Asare Bediako, an actor and film producer, who had also joined the protest, questioned why there is a lack of power supply despite having enough resources for electricity generation.

He urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government to take immediate action to end the power crisis and ensure that Ghanaians have access to reliable electricity.

“What we want to say is that now we have enough power, we have enough resources that we need to generate light, so why is the light not coming? What we want to tell our Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government and the NPP government is that we are tired, Ghanaians we are not angry enough and we want to demonstrate on this vigil to tell Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government that that dumsor must stop and cease now.”

The convener of the vigil, Jerry James Sukah, also emphasized the need for a load-shedding timetable to provide transparency and clarity to citizens regarding power outages. He also demanded a load-shedding timetable for the people to be able to adequately plan their lives.