Ghanaians should be ready for worst power crisis-Boakye Agyarko

The 2016 Policy Advisor and Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party's Energy Committee, Boakye Agyarko is predicting what he described as the worst power crisis to hit the country very soon and has asked Ghanaians to prepare themselves for it.

“Anyone who says dumsor (load shedding) is over should stand firm. It is not over yet. It is going to get worst very soon. Why I’m saying this, is that doctors will tell you that if you don’t get your diagnosis correct, your prescription will also not be correct,” he said.

The almost four year power crisis which mitigated earlier this year leading to members of governing National Democratic Congress(NDC) hailing President Mahama and asking his critics to commend him for fixing the problem has resurfaced. Many Ghanaians particularly the players in the industry are lamenting bitterly over the recent power cuts across the country and the fact that the power distributor EGC has not published any load shedding time table to enable them to plan ahead. But Mr. Boakye Agyarko, who is the former vice president of the Bank of New York, argues that Ghanaians have not seen anything yet, as that the worst power crisis is yet to come. Speaking on Oman FM’s political analysis programme “Boiling Point” Mr. Agyarko explained that the power crisis has resurfaced because government is cash trapped and so it is difficult to procure crude and gas to power the thermal plants to enable Ghanaians have uninterrupted supply of electricity.

Mr. Agyarko, who painted a gloomy picture in the energy sector, noted that state power producer Volta River Authority (VRA), is currently in debt distress and finding it difficult to settle its huge indebtedness to the Ghana Gas.

According to him, the inability of VRA to settle its huge debt to Ghana Gas is also crippling operations of the company (Ghana Gas) and this he said is worsening the problem in the energy sector.

Making reference to a story in page 16 of Monday’s Edition of Daily Graphic which read “Ghana Gas reduces gas supply to Aboadze power enclave,” Mr. Agyarko, said “this is a clear example of how bad the situation is.”

“As at March 30, 2016, VRA alone owed its suppliers GHS 1.539.8million….Outstanding light crude stood at GHS 776 million and outstanding gas GHS 530.99 million. VRA owes Atuabo gas GHS 250million so how can they work? Their working capital has locked up,” he pointed out.

Mr. Agyarko accused President Mahama for deceiving Ghanaians when he said in parliament last year that the power crisis was rather a technical problem and had nothing to do with funding as claimed by the opposition parties.

“President Mahama did this nation a disservice when he said the problem is technical,” he stated.

He asserted that the country did not benefit from any of the steps government took to address the power crisis.

He stated that all the steps which were taken including the procurement of power barges was an orchestrated plan by some government officials to defraud the country.

Story by: Michael Creg Afful

#News #Headlinesnews #Latestinghana