President John Dramani Mahama has clarified that the recent electricity outages affecting various parts of Ghana do not signal a return to the prolonged power crisis known as “dumsor”.
Instead, he maintained that these disruptions are a necessary part of an extensive upgrade intended to ensure a more reliable and stable supply for the future.
The President made these remarks during an inspection of newly acquired transformers for the Northern Electricity Distribution Company Limited (NEDCo).
He revealed that the government has procured 2,500 transformers to replace ageing units across the country, addressing a significant bottleneck in the national grid.
“The outages you are facing are not dumsor,” he said. “It is to enable you to get better quality and stable power.”
Reflecting on the history of Ghana’s energy infrastructure, the President traced the current challenges back to the National Electrification Programme initiated in the 1980s.
He noted that the national infrastructure was originally designed for a much smaller population, which has nearly doubled over the intervening decades.
“At that time, the population of Ghana was much smaller than it is today — I think some 19 million or 18 million; today we’re 33 million,” he said. “And it means that all our communities are expanding.”
To illustrate the strain on the current system, he cited a specific transformer in Nungua, Lashibi, which has been in continuous operation for over two decades.
He explained that such equipment was never intended to support the level of urban expansion seen in recent years.
“You can imagine that the transformer was installed 22 years ago. And since then, the community has expanded beyond the capacity of the transformer; that’s why you have the lights being very unstable,” President Mahama said.
He further explained that both the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and NEDCo had, for several years, deferred the mass replacement of transformers required to keep pace with rising domestic demand. This backlog necessitated a formal request from the Minister for Energy, which subsequently received Cabinet approval.
The President confirmed that the Ministry of Finance assisted the Ministry of Energy in securing the new equipment. He expressed confidence that the completion of this initial phase would result in a marked improvement in service delivery.
“We’re going to see stable power after this first phase,” he said. “After that, constantly we’ll keep taking out the old transformers so that Ghana can have stable power.”
President Mahama stated that residents would be given prior notice before any further scheduled replacements take place in their respective areas.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
