Speaking at a town hall meeting with members of the Ghanaian community last Saturday in Worcester, Massachusetts, President Akufo,Addo said he is clearing Mahama’s $2.4 billion energy debt but quickly added that his administration now export power to Burkina Faso and Togo. What the Mahama administration did was STRATEGIC INVESTMENT. Ghana is now a net exporter of power- meaning the we have started generating revenue from the projects/plants
It is really disappointing that a notable personality placed as the number one gentleman could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian claims without the benefit of facts. It is either the President does not realise the obligation of speaking responsibly in that high position or he is grossly ill informed.
In the first place, this blame is misplaced, unnecessary and baseless. Before the NDC government led by Mr Mahama came into power, there was no investment in terms of improving power generation in spite of the growing economy and high energy demand of Ghanaians. Ghanaians are not begging for too much from this government, what they want is to change their fortunes for better as promised them by the President and his party. The President must stop the complaining and address the mess it has created that is killing Ghanaians.
Mr Mahama said “I John Mahama, will fix the energy challenge” in his 2014 state of the nation address and did exactly that. The administration placed a lot of emphasis on the proper management of supply and demand to generate about 3800 megawatts over the next five years. Noting that Ghana needs a stable and reliable supply of electricity to meet the growing demand and support its socioeconomic development, the administration drew up a short to medium to long-term solutions. The President’s plan was designed to ensure more operational efficiency to the generation, transmission and distribution of utilities to reduce the cost of supply as well as to maintain the financial sustainability of the power sector.
The Mahama administration added –
-110MW stream component of the T2 Power at Aboadze
-250MW Ameri power
-225MW Karpower barge
-220MW Kpone Thermal power plant
-180MW TTP plant
-38 TTP plant
-110MW TEI plant
-186 MW power plant at Aboadze
-180-MW Asogli 1
-350MW Cenpower
-240MW Amandi
-Renewable Energy
-Atuabo gas plus the US$7 billion ENI/Vitol Sankofa field.
Before that, for about 30 years, not a single comprehensive policy was developed to improve our power generation. The only policy document Mr Mahama met was the busing of pastors to our power generation points to pray for God’s mercies and favour. Ghana is now a net exporter of power because of the massive investment the Mahama administration made in the power sector.
Is the President aware that in spite of the challenges the Mahama administration encountered in the power sector, access to electricity moved above 80 percent,and in sub Sahara Africa, Ghana was ranked second to South Africa.
Demand for power in Ghana has been growing at about 12-13 percent a year, but unfortunately, past governments did not invest in the power sector.
The President must stop blaming the Mahama administration for its inadequacies and abysmal performance, but rather look inward towards resolving the dying,cedi and general recession by inviting experts irrespective of their political leaning to join hands with the administration at these challenging times.
Mr President should know that you can’t plant grapes and harvest mangoes. It is no secret that the policies and statements made by key government actors including the Finance Minister, the Governor of Bank of Ghana and government propagandists have not been business friendly resulting in many Ghanaians and foreign businessmen taking their hard currencies out of the country. When experts were advising government to tread carefully, the Governor of Bank of Ghana was busily collapsing banks and churning out fake figures. If the President thinks he inherited a challenged economy as he shamelessly say on every stage he mounts, let me remind him that in his first hundred days in office in 1933, Roosevelt was reputed to have renewed the American spirit and optimism by immediately addressing the effects of the depression. Through the Great deal, he introduced a variety of programmes targeted at getting Americans back to work. Prof Mills inherited real mess but fixed the mess he inherited. Rawlings an economy which was described as dead economy by the world bank, inflation was above 100 percent with huge debt pushing it. By 1986, the administration had cleared about 90 percent of the debt it inherited and placed Ghana at the number one position in Africa in terms of economic development.
President Akufo,Addo is the luckiest President after Dr Busia. He inherited an economy projected to grow by 7-8 percent between 2017 and 2018, stable power, ultramodern schools, improved health sector, Exim Bank, more oil basins, high oil, cocoa and gold price on the world market.
Mr President and those who still think like him should tell Ghanaians the character of his economic team that has been managing the economy since 7th January 2017. This economic policy of unhealthy propaganda and blaming the previous administration senselessly and ceaselessly, will not wipe of the shame on the faces of the President and his party folks.
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