President Mahama convenes crucial meeting on energy generation a day after inauguration

The government is holding a crucial meeting to decide how to resolve a reported looming energy challenge in Ghana following the transition from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to the National Democratic Congress (NDC). 

Timothy Gobah and Kester Aburam Korankye report that President John Dramani Mahama has convened a meeting with energy experts and policymakers from the Ministry of Energy and relevant sector agencies. 

On Tuesday, in a terse interview during the inaugural ceremony of the new president, the Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, John Abdulai Jinapor told Joy News [video attached below] that, the NDC government had just discovered that the NPP government had not procured enough fuel for the generation of power.

He said the entire fuel reserve could generate only up to five hours of power, signaling a looming energy crisis. 

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According to the acting Government Spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Fosu, the energy sector was facing a looming crisis, prompting the government to set up a technical committee to investigate the situation.

He said the committee, commissioned by Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, has until Wednesday evening to come up with a decision on the issues plaguing the sector.

He said the challenges could lead to a significant loss of dependable capacity, with Accra needing around $1.2 billion to purchase fuel for its predominantly thermal power plants.

Related: NDC and NPP trade accusations over power supply challenges  

Herbert Krapa: "Keep the lights on as we did"  

However in a sharp rebuttal, Herbert Krapa, the former Energy Minister of the recent government, dismissed Jinapor’s claims, insisting that there is no impending load shedding, reports Kweku Zurek.  

“Load shedding does not ‘loom’. It is caused either by technical or emergency power generation issues or a lack of competence in managing the power sector. Mr. Jinapor seems to be haunted clearly by the latter,” Krapa stated in a press release.  

Mr. Krapa argued that the Akufo-Addo administration left sufficient fuel stock for power generation.  

“By the time of leaving office, President Akufo-Addo’s government left in stock, light crude oil which Cenpower currently generates power with, whilst AKSA continues to take delivery of heavy fuel oil which it generates power with. This fact is easily verifiable with a phone call to both power plants,” he said.  

He challenged the new administration to demonstrate competence in managing the sector, as the previous government did. 

“The responsibility of the new administration is to not only procure more liquid fuel to keep the lights on, whenever liquid fuel becomes required to complement gas supply, but also plan competently to avert power supply disruptions. We did it and they can do it too, if they can,” Krapa added.  

Mr. Krapa also urged the NDC government to focus on delivering results instead of laying blame.  

“The NDC government should get to work as we did, the reason we kept the lights on for eight years, regardless of the difficult times, and stop the needless finger pointing. That is not the way we kept the lights on,” he concluded.  

Outlook  

With both sides trading accusations, the onus now lies on the incoming administration to address the alleged fuel shortage and avert a potential power crisis. 

The energy sector remains a critical issue, and Ghanaians are watching closely to see how the new government will respond to these challenges.