Former President John Dramani Mahama has urged the government to quickly operationalise the 250 megawatt Ameri Plant to reduce the current power rationing also known as dumsor in the country.
The 2024 flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the Ameri Power Plant which he secured during the dumsor era in his administration, according to the government, was sent to the Ashanti region to help stabilise power in the middle belt.
Government in recent times has come under criticism for spending US$35million on relocating the plant, which has been taken off the power production and subsequently creating a deficit of 250 megawatts.
At a meeting with the business community at Kwahu during the Easter festivities Saturday, March 30, 2024, John Mahama asked the government to immediately power the plant to reduce the impact.
This was after the business community have shared their challenges with many of them revolving on the impact of the power outages.
“The problem is generation and financing. We are not getting money to fuel our generation plants due to our financial challenges. I brought the Ameri Plant during the dumsor era and government decided to bring it to Kumasi to stabilize power in the middle belt and that alone can produce 250 megawatts but they have not connected it yet so as quickly as they are able to fix it, it will reduce the dumsor,” he said at the meeting.
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Various parts of the country have been experiencing interruptions in electricity supply in the past weeks, prompting citizens to express their dissatisfaction with the ECG.
This has triggered calls for a load-shedding timetable, but the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has ruled out such calls.
He has reassured the public of putting in place measures to fix the power supply disruption across the country.
He says the demand for a load-shedding timetable was equivalent to wishing evil for the country.
“That is the word you used, I have never used that word. I have promised you that I am going to work on it. It is not a work that is a single event, it’s a process and we would continue to work on it for the energy sector to become better.
“Ask those who want it to bring it if there is, I have not seen any timetable when you say bring a timetable. What do you mean? The ECG says that there is no timetable coming, why do you want to bring a timetable? For what purpose? Why would somebody get up and wish evil or bad for the country, when it is not planned, you cannot tell the person,” he told a JoyNews reporter during the launch of the NPP campaign in the Ashanti region.
