Camouflaged dumsor: Who is Akufo-Addo and NPP deceiving?

In this day and age in the technology revolution of our generation, no nation can make it without energy security to power her energy-demanding industries and the service sector to drive sustainable development.

Ghana has been reliant on energy mix with a combination of largely thermal energy, declining hydro energy and minimal renewable energy sources to generate electricity to meet the growing energy needs of Ghanaian energy consumers.

With the Volta River Authority (VRA) and its supporting Independent Power Producers (IPPs) being responsible for the primary generation of electricity as well as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)/Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) for the distribution of power and Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) for transmission of electricity, these three main energy actors are often faced with huge technical loses or commercial losses. For instance, the ECG reported its distribution losses stood at 29.87% (10.55% technical and 19.29% commercial) at the end of 2021, while the NEDCO also registered distribution losses of 27.29% (9.2% technical and 18.09% commercial) for the same period. What has this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government done to curb such huge power sector losses? Not much, as I can see.

The mismatch of increasing energy needs coupled with growing youthful Ghanaian population; the country has been grappling with inadequate supply of electricity over time. The local Jargon called ‘dumsor’ was coined under former President Mahama’s tenure as the occurrence of planned light on and off affecting businesses and people.

This crippling dumsor impact on businesses and social functions undoubtedly made the then NDC/Mahama-led government largely unpopular in the country. By 2016, former President Mahama took full responsibility of the prevailing dumsor debacle via energy-sector investments by deploying emergency power plants e.g. entering ‘Take or Pay’ IPP agreements to arrest the debilitating energy crisis as well as addressing the energy legacy debts with the introduction of the Energy Sector Levies Act, 2015 (Act 899), the ESLA PLC, and lately amended in 2021.

Although the dumsor issue was largely solved before President left office, the NDC Party was heavily punished in the 2016 general elections by electorates while this current Akufo-Bawumia-led regime was given the nod instead to better manage the energy sector and the economy as a whole.

This governing Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led NPP regime capitalized on the lingering dumsor issue and promised to do better than the NDC Party in terms of energy management, if they won political power in 2016. Almost eight years down the line in government now, President Akufo-Addo and NPP Communicators are always quick to mention former President Mahama for causing dumsor, but they are unable to tell Ghanaians any critical energy-related investments the current President has personally made to perpetually cure the lingering energy issues (dumsor) confronting the country. None!

The apparent lack of intensive investments in the fragile power system of Ghana under the watch of this current government and the deliberate collateralization of proceeds from ESLA PLC shows that the Akufo-Bawumia-led regime has terribly failed in addressing the energy sector issues including technical and financial challenges to ensure Ghana is energy sufficient. This ESLA PLC was established under the erstwhile NDC/Mahama government to better handle energy sector legacy debts, but now, that is impaired, financially speaking.

Due the deliberate energy sector investments of the Mahama’s regime, it was projected that Ghana’s economy was going to be robust from 2017. As confirmed by the current Vice President Dr. Bawumia, and former majority leader Kyei-Mensah the issue of dumsor was solved by the time President Mahama left office in 2016.

You and I know there is dumsor or semblance of it under this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime. It is no secret that the IPP threatened several times to withdraw supply of electricity to government due to non-payments of debts. There have also been frequent unannounced dumsor situations even on Valentine Day 2024 in the Upper West Region, some Secondary schools going off in the middle of evening studies as well as Parliament of Ghana, etc.

Apart from such ‘dumsor-lookalike’ incidences, there was almost nationwide blackout after SONA 2024 that this Akufo-Addo's regime claimed it has done better in dealing with the dumsor situation than the Mahama's regime, which is contrary to the reality on the ground.

The begging question to ask is that ‘Who is Akufo-Addo and NPP deceiving about the worsening dumsor situation in the country by camouflaging it as if it is non-existent?’ Ghanaians are feeling the impact of this unannounced dumsor and are better judges and no is fooled!

Legitimately, I would also like to ask at what cost is the light being put on now for Ghanaians since it appears this government is piling up the energy sector debts now and struggling to pay some of it? The threat of IPPs to cut electricity supply to government last year due to huge debts owed them by government should concern every Ghanaian.

Apart from the visible mismanagement of the economy, this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government is not showing any frantic efforts to solving the fundamental energy problems of our country.

Instead of this governing NPP regime consolidating the investments made in the energy sector by former President Mahama, it has failed to do so and refused to admit that the ugly dumsor phenomenon is creeping into the energy system again and decided to camouflage or mask it for purposes of political expediency.

The earlier Ghanaians notice this current deterioration of energy sector issues under this poorly performing governing NPP led by the Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and massively vote it out in 2024 the better for the future of Ghana.