The Akufo-Addo government has credited itself for ending the years of electricity crisis that crippled Ghana’s economy and led to the collapse of businesses and job losses.
Though the Mahama-led government had before exiting office on January 7, 2017 announced the end of the erratic electricity supply, which was locally referred to as dumsor, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday suggested otherwise.
In December 2015, the then Power Ministry announced it had fixed an electricity supply deficit that caused years of frequent blackouts resulting in loadshedding management across the country.
The crisis which began in 2012 became a talking point in political discussions as the then opposition New Patriotic Party blamed the situation on what it termed as the incompetence of the John Mahama administration.
“The Ministry of Power wishes to inform the public that its Load Shedding programme in respect of electricity supply has been brought to an end,” a statement issued by the Ministry in December 2015 claimed.
However, President Akufo-Addo at the weekend praised his Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko for his work that has led to the statbilisation of electricity supply in the country.
Presenting the 2018 Budget Statement in parliament Wednesday, the Finance Minister also said: “We have provided reliable electricity supply,” a claim that triggered uproar from the Members of Parliament.
“Our SHS students have literally forgotten how to spell dumsor because dumsor is dead!” Mr. Ofori-Atta added.
He said the country’s installed generation capacity was increased from 4,132 MW in 2016 to 4,577MW in 2017. In 2018.
“Government will continue to increase the installed generation capacity by about 487MW (Cenpower; 340MW, Early Power Phase 1; 147MW) to meet the growing demand of electricity,” he added.
The Minister said under the Rural Electrification Programme, 289 out of a targeted 2,185 communities were connected to the national grid with other projects at various stages of completion. In 2018, a total of 1,796 communities will be connected to the national grid
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana