Energy Analyst Benjamin Nsiah has cautioned against prematurely declaring Ghana’s energy sector as stable, following recent comments made by the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor.
During day two of the Government Accountability Series, Mr. Jinapor announced that the country has made significant progress in power supply reliability, noting an end to the widespread outages that plagued the early months of the year.
But speaking on Morning Starr with Joshua Kodjo Mensah on Thursday, July 17, Mr. Nsiah acknowledged the improvements while urging restraint in drawing definitive conclusions.
“It’s too early to confirm stability of power, it’s just about seven months. In the previous regime, we also experience similar situation when they assumed office. So to say there’s stability, uninterrupted power is early mention, we should give ourselves some time to see, from next year going, then we could be able to make some of these pronouncements,” Nsiah stated.
He also questioned the financial sustainability of the current power stability, calling for transparency in sector-related spending.
“We are also making this conclusion without telling us the expenditure we’ve made to keep this power stable, whether we are able to defray some of the deficits that we put in the budget. For example the budget mentioned of about 28 billion sector shortfall.”
“So are we paying this particular shortfall and if you are paying then we must commend ourselves. But if you are not paying and saving some money to procure fuel for current usage to keep our power stable, then in future we are likely going to be in a challenge. So we need to be careful,” he explained.
Nsiah added that the sector’s true test lies not just in present reliability, but in long-term planning and investment.
While acknowledging the recent improvements, Mr. Nsiah concluded that it is premature to celebrate.
“But yes, I do agree with them that there’s been some stability. But it’s too early to call for certain commendations of their activity. Until maybe one or two years, we could say that there’s that stability.”
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
