Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, 2016 running mate for the NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo says the ruling government has not made it a priority to solve the ever worsening power crisis in the country.
“They care little about the businesses dumsor has collapsed or the jobs dumsor has collapsed in the past 4 years. Rather, their major concern is what can be used come the election year and what cannot be used. Solving dumsor clearly has not been a priority these past four years and may only become a priority as we get close to the election” he said when addressing journalist at a press conference held at the party’s headquarters.
According to him, government continues to be in denial when they know that the power crisis is not a ‘technical but financial’ problem.
"After several denials by Government, it should now be clear to Ghanaians that the current energy crisis is not a result of inadequate installed capacity but rather a lack of financial resources to utilize the installed capacity. Installed capacity in Ghana stands at 2,923.5 mw, with peak system demand at 2,200.0 mw, leaving excess capacity over demand of 723.5 mw Government is highly indebted to VRA and ECG. Government owes ECG some GHC700 million and owes VRA GHC1.0 billion. VRA, owes its creditors, including Nigeria gas and West Africa Pipeline Company, a total of $1.3 billion. This has compromised the balance sheet of VRA and its ability to import crude oil for the generation of power. Currently VRA has shut down a number of its plants because it is unable to purchase fuel to run them. Ghana owes Nigeria Gas some US$170 million which the country is struggling to pay.
Why is it that after four years of trying, the government has still not found a solution to the problem? The simple answer is that the government has been in denial and has not prioritized this issue. The government has borrowed $3 billion in the last three years from the issue of Eurobonds alone. In total government has borrowed the equivalent at the time of borrowing of $37 billion. How much of these borrowed funds have been used to address the dumsor problem? If this was a priority for government, the necessary allocation of resources would have been made to solve it.
President Mahama’s latest comments in Tamale that Dumsor will end before the 2016 Election and cannot be used for politics exposes the thinking of the government and the President. For the President and his government, Dumsor is not an economic issue but a political issue. They care little about the businesses dumsor has collapsed or the jobs dumsor has collapsed in the past 4 years. Rather, their major concern is what can be used come the election year and what cannot be used. Solving dumsor clearly has not been a priority these past four years and may only become a priority as we get close to the election" he stated.
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