Napo Should Stop Using Just “mere talks” to run the Energy Sector – Edward Bawa

The Member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, Hon. Edawrd Abambire Bawa has slammed the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, for using PR to steer the affairs of the ministry.

In his view, the energy sector minister’s self-delusion that the availability of power supply in the country will solely be determined by timeliness in payment to the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) is not in thinking outside the box of the Ghana’s energy crisis.

Hon. Bawa indicated that, this current government should not mused about not just for the transportation of gas, which is a minute amount of the components that is utterly needed in ensuring availability of power supply in the country.

Reacting to the Energy Minster’s Press briefing on Thursday, 9th November, 2023, Hon. Bawa stated that the Energy Minister Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh’s inability to disclose the indebtedness of ECG to Ghanaian sector agencies; GRIDCo, VRA, and Gas, but only cited the indebtedness to WAPCo is entirely an act of dishonesty.

Hon. Bawa stressed that currently in terms of total indebtedness in power that the country has consumed, Ghana is wallowing in debt close to some Gh¢15 billion, adding that WAPCo is simply “the one that picks the gas and brings”.

He, clarifying the scope of issues that have hit the energy sector, Hon. Bawa reiterated that the second concern has to do with the energy capacity of the country.

He elaborated that from the beginning of the year till date, Ghana’s dependable capacity is now 3,407MW. Meanwhile, at peak, the country is consuming in the region of 3,561MW.

The Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh:
“As of Wednesday, 8:55pm, we did not have enough power to give to Ghanaians. So, when you see that there are sections of the country going off between 6pm and 10pm, it’s because from the beginning of the year up until now, we have a power generation deficit, not only because of gas but just simply because we do not have enough power.”

Edward Bawa speaking truth to the predicament of the energy sector urged Dr. Opoku Prempeh to be candid and not to paint a bizarre picture that seeks to conclude that the power outages in the country are borne out to frivolous reason.

He argued that the NDC administration cautioned government on the issue, but the latter moved on the tangent of excess capacity, hence refuted to put in punitive measures to ensure best generation capacity.

“As I speak, our growth rate in terms of power consumption is so high – we are doing around 12% annually, and we do not have corresponding addition in terms of that. That is why for about eleven months now we have had a deficit in terms of generation.”

“So, when you see your lights off in your area, it is not a localized one, it’s just that because of the lack of transparency of this government, they will not allow GRIDCo to publish a loadshedding plan for Ghanaians. The moment they do that, then their rhetoric, like what the minister is saying, cannot hold. So, they’ll bully GRIDCo not to do that, but currently, we have a huge problem.

Hon. Bawa dismissed the claims by the Energy Minster that he has handled the energy indebtedness better than the NDC under John Mahama.

He added that if the NPP government had continued with the power plan of the NDC to ensure that all Ghanaians have equal access to electricity by 2020, snappily complete the upgrade of what the previous government commenced to enable power export and make electricity available to VALCo to run at full capacity, the issue of excess capacity will not lingers on the lips of Ghanaians.

By Lawrence Odoom