President John Dramani Mahama solved Dumsor by adding far more Electricity Generation Capacity than Ghana needed and left a buffer with even surplus for export or industrialization.
THE DUMSOR DEBATE IS OVER.
“Dumsor was a money problem” – Dr. Bawumia
Dr. Bawumia is well known for peddling falsehoods and half-truths;
The truth is that Dumsor predated the President Mills and President Mahama era, indeed Dumsor existed in the President Kufuor era.
The truth is that Ghana’s energy generation capacity was lagging behind its energy requirement and supply to consumers resulting in rationing of electricity called Dumsor.
The truth is that the pre-2016 Dumsor was a Power Generation Problem whereas the current Dumsor under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government is a combination of a Money problem, a Mismanagement problem and a Corruption problem.
The failure of successive governments to add to the electricity generation capacity while extending power to rural areas put pressure on the obsolete and poorly maintained equipment causing occasional outages called Light-off by Ghanaians.
Electricity Generation was by cheap Hydro from the Akosombo Dam which was drying up due to poor rainfall and expensive Fuel powered generators.
President Mills initiated the self-financing Atuabo Gas Plant to produce and supply cheap reliable gas as an alternative to the erratic West African Gas supply from Nigeria which compounded the energy generation capacity of Ghana.
It is now very clear that Dumsor was solved by the NDC before President John Dramani Mahama left office in 2016; leaving Ghana with excess electricity generation capacity, which the NPP called “WASTE POWER” instead of exporting or utilising for industrialization as intended.
Unlike the Kufuor Toy Generatirs he imported to help solve Dumsor that did not generate 1kWatt of power the Emergency Power Barges and Independent Power Producers [IPPs] engaged under President John Dramani Mahama produced in excess of what was required by Ghanaians thus ending Dumsor.
It is also clear that Dumsor started before the NDC took power in 2009; it is on record that President Kufuor during his tenure sent Pastors to Akosombo Dam to pray for rainfall to fill the dam so its generation capacity can increase, so the Dumsor at the time which was essentially a power generation capacity shortfall can be solved.
The Millennium Challenge Compact between Ghana Government and the United States of America Government for the optimization of the Power Sector ended up in the PDS scandal under President Akufo-Addo.
AMERI Power Plant was an emergency power plant, it was needed because there was an emergency which required power generation to resolve Dumsor; under President Akufo-Addo there was an audit of AMERI deal which did not uncover any underhand dealing, however, the inflated AMERI-NOVATION DEAL Scandal that President Akufo-Addo sent to Parliament under Executive Order led to the removal of then Energy Minister Boakye Agyaako who said he will speak at the appropriate time…
The appropriate time has come for Noakye Agyaako, who is aspiring to be NPP Flagbearer and consequently President of Ghana, to speak and expose the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government in the deliberate inflation of the AMERI-NOVATION DEAL and the PDS SCANDAL.
The World Bank Country Director’s ill-informed, reckless politically motivated comments on Ghana’s energy sector should be seen against the backdrop of his own political ambitions.
IF NDC HAD NOT LOST POWER IN 2016, and President John Dramani Mahama had remained President, with the EXCESS ELECTRICITY GENERATION CAPACITY which ended Dumsor and had the US Millennium Challenge Compact to improve the country’s power sector with the potential of exporting Ghana’s Excess electricity to neighbouring countries;
It is obvious we would not be discussing excess capacity, IPPs demanding money for electricity which was not utilsed or exported or how PDS was used to squander the Millennium Challenge Compact as happened under President Akufo-Addo and Bawumia.
If the 1-District 1-Factory claimed to have been implemented under Alan Kyerematen was real and not the hoax it has been exposed to be by a section of the media, these factories would have required the excess electricity and paid for it thus the Independent Power Producers [IPPs] who were operating on Take-or-Pay basis would not have been owed…
The inefficiency of the VRA, GridCo, ECG and NedCo which are manifest in revenue shortfalls arising from non-collection of revenue from consumers, line losses, power theft among others cannot become President John Mahama’s headache in the second term of President Akufo-Addo.
In fact, under President John Dramani Mahama the finances of the VRA, GridCo, ECG and NedCo were cleaned by then Finance Minister who was given additional responsibility for the Energy Ministry, so they could borrow on their own books and thrive as proper business entities and not appendages of government or political interests.
Today, ECG has no meters to supply to consumers, consumers thus cannot legally enjoy electricity and ECG cannot correctly charge whiles others resort to illegally connecting to the National power grid, engage in power theft and continuing the vicious cycle of revenue shortfalls which will definitely lead Ghana back to Dumsor; this time with Excess Electricity Generation Capacity.
In the midst of Excess Electricity, Bankrupt Ghana will officially be plunged into Darkness or Dumsor which has been ongoing under President Akufo-Addo for years albeit under other ridiculous pseudonyms e.g. Dumsiesie, Light-off, Planned maintenance etc
Beyond the noise and slangs from the talkative Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government officials; they have not added any significant electricity generation to Ghana’s existing capacity.
The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government extended tge tenure of the existing Take-or-Pay agreements originally signed under President John Dramani Mahama and have signed new Take-or-Pay Power Purchase Agreements.
The Energy Sector Levy and other funds such as the TOR Recovery Levy instead of being used for intended purposes have rather been collateralized and squandered by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.
REALITY:
GHANA IS BANKRUPT, the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government is bereft of ideas, mismanaged every sector including the Energy and Financial Sector and botched the Millennium Challenge Compact safety net with its inherent corruption via the PDS Scandal that they sought to use to steal ECG for free while walking free and still keeping the Prepaid monies of Ghanaian consumers of electricity.
THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES.
Everybody involved in the Upstream and Downstream corruption-tainted transactions e.g. PDS, AMERI-NOVATION Scandals must be arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others who may want to repeat same in other related energy sector transactions e.g. GNPC-AKER DEAL, GNPC-PetroSA etc
Ghanaians are resolved to be Citizens and not Spectators.
Anything short of this, and transfer of the burden to Ghanaians bearing the brunt of the excruciating economic hardships via Dumsor or quarterly tariff increases will result in REVOLT, CIVIL ACTION or the much dreaded GHANA UPRISING.
It will be recalled that Akufo-Addo predicted in the studios of Peace FM on Kwame Sefa Kayi’s Kokrokoo show that Ghanaians are likely to have an UPRISING if the prevailing conditions continued.
THE GHANA UPRISING has been confirmed by the former Chief of Staff Kojo Mpiani and former National Security Coordinator Brigadier General Nunoo-Mensah as imminent.
STAY TUNED.
By Prince-Derek Adjei