Deputy Energy Minister Andrew Egyapa Mercer has insisted that there is no “dumsor,” necessitating a load-shedding timetable.
The Sekondi Member of Parliament stated that the challenges leading to recent power outages in the country have been fully addressed.
Assuring Ghanaians, he stated that there will be no more intermittent power outages, commonly known as ‘dumsor,’ starting from Thursday, January 11, 2024.
In an interview with Citi FM on the same day, Mr. Mercer mentioned that the Ministry of Finance disbursed $10 million to the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAGPCo) for gas supply on Wednesday.
He emphasised that this step is taken to underscore the commitment to ensuring uninterrupted power supply.
“What has happened over the past few days is that some obligation owed by GNPC to WAGPCo was an issue. WAGPCo threatened [and] GNPC made some initial payments [but] it wasn’t satisfactory. We requested the Ministry of Finance to top up. We had to go through some approval processes.”
“As of yesterday [Wednesday] evening the Ministry of Finance had approved a sum of 10 million to pay for a part of that debt. So that was the hiccup that we encountered that led to the power outages we encountered in the past few days. But that has been resolved,” he said.
In addition, he disclosed that WAGPCo has commenced the transportation of gas for power generation, with the subsequent distribution facilitated by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to the citizens.
“Yesterday, WAGPCo said it was going to restore and that was accordingly made from the West to the East, to power plants in the East. And so there is no ‘dumsor’ to warrant the shedding.”