Former Minister for Energy Herbert Krapa has rejected claims of impending load shedding in Ghana, instead urging the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to take responsibility for managing the power sector effectively.
Krapa’s comments came in response to warnings from John Jinapor, Co-Chairman of the Transition Team sub-committee on Energy and Natural Resources, who predicted a power crisis due to fuel shortages after President John Mahama’s inauguration.
In a Facebook post, Krapa dismissed Jinapor’s claims, stating that load shedding is typically caused by technical or emergency power generation issues, or incompetence in managing the power sector.
He emphasized that the previous government had left sufficient fuel stocks, including light crude oil for Cenpower and heavy fuel oil for AKSA, which can be verified by contacting the power plants directly.
Krapa argued that the NDC government should focus on procuring more liquid fuel and planning to prevent power disruptions, rather than blaming the previous administration.
He added that the NPP kept the lights on for eight years, despite challenges, and encouraged the new government to follow suit.
The post noted, “I have read a statement from Hon. John Jinapor (MP), Co-Chairman of the Transition Team sub-committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in which he claims that “massive load shedding looms as Ghana’s fuel stock depletes” and seeks to blame His Excellency President Akufo-Addo and his government for it.”
“Mr. Jinapor is wrong. 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.”
“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. 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.”
“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.”
