Prez Mahama to fire Power Minister

• Posted on April 16, 2015April 16, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

President John Dramani Mahama says he is ready to fire the Minister of Power should he fail to keep to his promise of working hard to solve the current power crisis the country is faced with.

Though he said his government is working very hard to fix the crisis, President Mahama said Dr Kwabena Donkor’s promise of ensuring that the severe irregular power supply ends outright by close of 2015 is a promise he, the President, is going to hold the Minister accountable to.

President John Dramani Mahama said this at the Free Zones Enclave in Tema where he commissioned the first private 165MVA power supply sub-station owned by Enclave Power Company (EPC), a privately-owned Ghanaian holding company.

He said, “My Power Minister has promised me that by close of this year the power crisis we are going through will be fixed. I have heard him but I am reminding him that his head will be on the chopping board if he fails.”

The government, he iterated, will ensure that the wide gap in the power supply is closed following some measures, he said, the government has put in place.

He further assured industries that a cheaper base load power will be supplied them in order to sustain development and growth.

Commending EPC for investing $85 million in the construction of the sub-station to help augment the shortfall in the supply of energy to companies located in the Free Zones Enclave, President Mahama explained that private sector participation is opened to ensure reliable power supply.

By allowing the private sector to participate in the distribution of power supply, he said, does not mean that his government has put up the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for sale.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EPC, Mr Kojo Aduhene, for his part, said EPC is part of LMI Holdings with assets in excess of $100 million and with subsidiary companies engaged in industrial and residential estate development, telecommunications, logistics and warehousing, construction and quarrying, energy and oil and gas services.

Since 2000, EPC, he explained, has been providing electricity supply to industrial and commercial customers within the Free Zones Enclave.

EPC purchases power from the Volta River Authority (VRA), and as it is becoming a major player in the electricity market, Mr Aduhene said EPC intends to increase its share of the electricity distribution market significantly over the next five years.

It has plans to, therefore, explore avenues of alternative supply from independent power producers such as Sunon Asogli and CENIT Energy in the medium term.

He said that EPC expects to exceed $30 million and 120GWh in 2015 as against $14 million for 82GWh of electricity it sold in 2014.

From Inusa MUSAH, Tema