The Deputy Energy minister nominee, Andrew Egyapa Mercer says he would work hand-in-hand with the Energy Minister to execute the mandate of President Akufo-Addo as outlined in the manifesto if approved by the Appointment Committee.
President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday submitted to the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the names of his deputy ministerial nominees for Parliament’s prior approval.
The President said he “is hopeful that, just as was done for his Ministers, Parliament will, on a bi-partisan basis, expedite the approval of his Deputy Ministerial nominees, so they can join the government forthwith, and assist in the delivery of his mandate for his second term in office.”
Mr Mercer, reacting to his nomination said he is humbled that amongst the lot he was settled on for the position.
Touching on the current power outages the country is facing the Sekondi MP said, “I’m sure we’re all aware of the issues that are confronting us. As we speak, of course largely because of the stability programme that GRIDCo is rolling out that has led to some power challenges that we are facing.
“We’ve been told that infrastructure that transmits our power which we know we have an excess because of the emergency power that was contracted between 2013 and 2015 which has put our energy generation at an excess of 5000 megawatts.
“When our peak demand is just around 3000 that infrastructure that then transmits the electricity to the consumer has been in place for upwards of 56 years when its lifetime really is in the region of 40 so consistently over the years we’ve not invested as much even though some work is going on in the grid,” he said.
He added that the ongoing work at the grid at Pokuase is to ensure that the power outages are solved to in order for power to be transmitted to feed industries and also the serve the consuming public.