The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has rejected claims that the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government inherited a power crisis from the previous Mahama administration.
This comes after former Energy Minister Herbert Krapa dismissed warnings from John Jinapor, Co-Chairman of the Transition Team sub-committee on Energy and Natural Resources, who predicted a looming power crisis due to fuel shortages following President John Mahama’s inauguration.
Krapa, responding to Jinapor’s claims, took to Facebook to assert that load shedding is usually caused by technical or emergency power generation issues or poor management of the power sector.
He stressed that the previous government left sufficient fuel stocks, including light crude oil for Cenpower and heavy fuel oil for AKSA, which can be verified by directly contacting the power plants.
In a similar vein, during his final State of the Nation Address (SONA), former President Akufo-Addo stated that his administration inherited dumsor from the previous Mahama government.
However, the Executive Director of the IES, Nana Amoasi VII, in an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey argued that the NPP inherited an improved power system but mishandled the opportunities presented to them.
Nana Amoasi VII criticised the NPP’s handling of the power sector, stating, “They are not in the position to tell this government to keep the lights in because they didn’t keep it on. They didn’t inherit dumsor, they rather inherited an improved power generational system to the point where they could even described the reserve margin as excess capacity.”
“They had the opportunity to invest heavily in the distribution grid thus the ECG but they mishandled the ECG concession agreement and we lost the opportunity.”
