'Why switch off lights after dumsor levy?’ — NPP's Awal Mohammed slams gov't over power cuts

A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications team, Awal Mohammed, has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration over the recent intermittent power outages.

His comments come as the country continues to experience erratic electricity supply over the past two weeks, affecting households, businesses and public services.

The outages were initially attributed to ongoing transformer upgrade works by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

However, the situation worsened following a fire outbreak at a Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) power control centre, which led to a loss of about 1,000 megawatts from the national grid.

Reacting to the development on Accra-based JoyNews' AM show on Tuesday, April 28* Mohammed questioned the rationale behind continued power disruptions despite what he described as earlier government revenue measures meant to stabilise supply.

“We were told that when we pay one cedi dumsor levy [government will] be able to buy crude to fire the turbines so that we will not see dumsor,” he said.

He further argued that Ghanaians have continued to bear increased electricity costs without corresponding stability in supply.

“We have been paying the 24% increment on electricity for the last one year… so why must you switch off our light?” he questioned.

According to him, the explanations being given for the current outages do not fully reflect the realities on the ground.

He noted that similar disruptions had been recorded even before the recent fire incident.

Mohammed urged the government to provide clearer accountability on the management of the power sector and ensure consistent electricity supply despite ongoing maintenance works.