President Nana Akufo-Addo, has lauded his government’s significant achievements in Ghana’s power sector in the last seven years.
According to Akufo-Addo, despite the economic challenges that has faced the country in the last seven years, his government has ensured constant power supply for Ghanaians.
The President on delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA), on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, said the dumsor phenomenon under former President John Dramani Mahama collapsed many businesses, which his government has decided never to let Ghanaians go through similar experience.
“Mr Speaker, between 2012 and early 2017, there was nothing more demoralising than the phenomenon we called DUMSOR. It was symptomatic of a dysfunctional system, and it caused widespread depression amongst businesses and households. After that experience, my government was determined that DUMSOR would not be inflicted upon Ghana and Ghanaians under an NPP government, and I am glad to be able to say, SO FAR, SO GOOD, we have managed to keep the lights on these last seven (7) years, even in the midst of a financial crisis.
We have managed the energy sector with discipline and expertise, to avoid a repetition of the hardships inflicted on Ghanaians some years ago,” he said.
He added that the energy sector debt that his government inherited when they took over seven years ago, has been drastically reduced.
“Furthermore, through determined, skillful negotiation, we have been able to reduce considerably the energy sector debt that we inherited. Indeed, the Government Negotiating Team carried out a successful reconciliation
exercise with the IPPs and ECG, which established that the IPP arrears position was not the one-point-six billion dollars (US$1.6 billion) that had been previously reported in the media, but was actually one-point-two
billion dollars (US$1.2 billion), that is savings of some four hundred million dollars (US$400 million).”