Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), has stated that Energy Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh’s response to individuals advocating for the issuance of a load-shedding timetable by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish their own proposed schedules is a reflection of government’s overall view on Ghana’s power challenges.
He described the minister’s comments as unfortunate but not surprising because the board chairman of ECG, Samuel Dubik recently made the same comments stating that electricity was not a right.
Speaking to reporters at the inauguration of the New Patriotic Party campaign team in the Ashanti Region, the Energy Minister challenged critics to devise their timetable if they deem it necessary.
“It is very unfortunate but we are not surprised because the ECG boss said electricity was a privilege and so it has gone to influence the minister’s comments and it tells us about what our leaders think of the power issues and they have already told us that there will be no timetable,” Nana Amoasi VII told Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM.
Nana Amoasi VII also attributed the ongoing power cuts to a liquidity challenge which he indicated runs through the power generation and distribution chain.
“The issue with the power situation is a liquidity challenge and the challenge runs through all the power value chain and they [ECG] could not maintain their plants and they had to go through a shutdown and the monies we generate is not enough to cover for the maintenance of the value chain and that is why we owe the IPPs, WAPCO and others.”