Power outages due to the lack of fuel – ACEP

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has stated categorically that the current power outages “dumsor” in the country are due to a lack of financial resources to purchase fuel to power the thermal plants.

The Policy Lead of Petroleum and Conventional Energy at ACEP, Kodzo Yaotse, spoke on the power crisis during an engagement with the media.

He expressed concern over the government’s failure to make funds unavailable and accused ECG of inability to collect revenue. He says the incompetence of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has been emboldened by its monopoly in the power distribution sector.

The criticism from ACEP stems from the failure by the ECG to provide a load-shedding timetable amidst the worsening power outages, popularly referred to as dumsors.

Moreover, the senior policy analyst of ACEP, Mrs. Mabel Acquaye, educated the media on how Ghana’s $1 billion IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation was utilised.

It would be recalled that in August 2021, Ghana received US$1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as its share of the new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocation to boost global liquidity and economic recovery following the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lives and livelihoods.

She stated that in December 2021, the government used $300 million as the first tranche to support the GhanaCEARS Obaatanpa” programme, and in May 2022, $638 was also used.

Given the breakdown, she indicated that these facility was used to finance the preparation of hot meals, provision of free water for sanitation and electricity subsidy for households and businesses among others .