8th January 2025 8:43:57 AM
3 mins readStakeholders are raising alarms over an imminent power crisis, commonly referred to as 'dumsor,' due to a severe fuel shortage threatening the stability of Ghana's electricity supply.
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John Jinapor, Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, disclosed the critical situation after President John Dramani Mahama's inauguration in Accra on January 7. Jinapor warned that the country's fuel stock had dwindled dangerously, with only five hours of fuel remaining.
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“I have bad news for you, the confirmation we are getting is that we have only five hours of fuel stock. If you look at heavy fuel oil and diesel fuel, we don’t have up to two days, and so in two days’ time, we are likely to run out of fuel,” Jinapor stated.
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He criticized the outgoing administration for failing to secure adequate fuel supplies, leaving the incoming government vulnerable. “This administration has not ordered any fuel as we speak, and it takes on average four weeks for the fuel to arrive and four weeks for the fuel to be treated, and so we are in a very serious situation,” he said in an interview with Joy News.
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Jinapor further revealed that during the transition, assurances were made that fuel parcels had been secured, but checks proved otherwise. “Today, right after President Mahama assumed office and I served on the transition, my checks indicate that we do not have fuel that can cater for even two days, and so clearly we have a major, major problem,” he emphasized.
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He warned that even if fuel were ordered immediately, it would take approximately eight weeks to arrive and be processed, resulting in prolonged power outages. “We are in for real trouble,” he concluded, urging immediate action to mitigate the looming crisis.
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The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has also issued a stark warning, urging the Mahama administration to take swift measures. Nana Amoasi VII, Executive Director of the IES, underscored the fragile state of Ghana's power sector, attributing the crisis to systemic inefficiencies and poor planning.
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“It is not something that we were not expecting. Being watchers of the space, we knew very well that we had a very fragile power sector stemming from systemic inefficiencies, including poor planning,” Nana Amoasi VII said during an interview on Citi FM's Eyewitness News.
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He highlighted the country's heavy reliance on natural gas without sufficient backup fuel stock, leaving the nation vulnerable. “Today we are more reliant on natural gas, but thank God almost all the plants that we have in Ghana, excluding the hydro ones and the solar, all of them can run on liquid fuel as well. But we knew that we don’t have any backup or any stock of liquid fuel in adequate form, so we knew that at a certain point in time we could be exposed,” he explained.
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Expressing disappointment, Nana Amoasi VII noted the absence of fuel procurement during the transition. “Unfortunately, we were expecting that as part of the transition arrangement, some form of procurement or lifting would have been made to ensure that there is no gap left within the space, but our checks indicate that we don’t have enough liquid fuel to give us that reliance and assurance that we won’t have any shock in power supply,” he added.
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He appealed to the current administration to act urgently, stating, “So we will appeal to the men in charge today to get back to work and start work as soon as possible. Either than that, we are largely exposed.”
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