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NPP PRESS BRIEFING ON
ENERGY CRISIS
Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen of the
Press.
We thank you for honoring our invitation at
this short notice.
We want to share with you our deepest
disappointment with the mismanagement of our
power sector and its unbearable consequences
on the economy and the lives of our people.
Over the last 6 years, the ruling NDC
government has consistently demonstrated
their inability to address the challenges
facing the energy sector.
We believe that the John Mahama led
government is being insincere and misleading
the Ghanaian people. The actions and
inactions of government have weakened the
financial capacity of VRA. As we speak,
Government, MMDAs and other institutions owe
VRA up to the tune of over GHC2Billion and
we strongly believe it is the major
contributor to what we are experiencing
today in Ghana.
At a press conference yesterday, the
government announced measures to increase
the generating capacity by 1000 megawatts.
However, Mr. Kwabena Donkor fell short of
providing financial details and timeline for
the aforementioned power projects.
How is government going to fund such
projects, especially so when it was not
captured in the 2015 budget which was read
on the floor of Parliament by the Minister
of Finance, Mr. Seth Tekper?
Ladies and Gentlemen, we want to request the
government to provide us with the project
details of the short-term measures and also
clear timelines for the completion of the
aforementioned power projects.
The energy crisis is taking a heavy toll on
the socio economic lives of Ghana. The load
shedding is destroying small and medium
enterprises. Big companies are downsizing
therefore increasing job loses and
unemployment.
Barbers, hairdressers, carpenters, tailors,
students and everybody have been negatively
affected. Now we are being told to wait
until the election year of 2016 to see an
end to the crises. A few weeks ago, the fate
of patients was left in the balance when the
lights went off at the LEKMA hospital.
Doctors were then in the operating theater
performing a procedure on patients. Blood in
blood banks are at risk due to frequent
outages. Bodies of loved ones are
decomposing in our morgues.
What plans does the government have for our
hospitals, clinics and health institutions?
What we demand now are pragmatic plans in
fixing this unending power crisis in the
shortest possible time.
Thank You.
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