Power Minister John Abdulai Jinapor says the present energy disaster shouldn’t be the making of the Mahama administration however a direct results of an inherited disaster from the earlier authorities.
Talking on Pleasure Information’ PM Specific on Wednesday, April 30, the Minister blamed persistent load shedding on what he described as deep-rooted issues left behind by the NPP administration.
“In truth, way back to December, once we had been about going into the election — and that was the final month of the NPP administration — they had been shedding about 500 megawatts of energy,” he revealed.
“Should you take a look at the entire of 2024, not nearly each month — each month — there was load shedding.”
In accordance with Jinapor, the disaster was so extreme final yr that even the previous power minister confronted intense criticism.
“It received so heated that the minister got here underneath fireplace,” he recalled. “So this factor didn’t begin at present.”
He burdened that whereas Ghanaians are rightfully upset about energy outages, the difficulty didn’t originate underneath his watch.
“If the roads are dangerous, persons are sad. If water doesn’t movement, persons are sad. However the night time, when the lights exit, individuals get very upset and indignant. That’s what I’ve seen. And so naturally, individuals wish to see their lights on, which is predicted.”
Regardless of inheriting the issue, Jinapor mentioned he takes full accountability as sector minister.
“As a minister, even when ECG commits a mistake, no person is aware of the ECG MD. When the PURC commits a mistake or does one thing, no person even is aware of who the Govt Secretary is,” he defined.
“The identical with Power Fee, the identical with GRIDCo and VRA. What they know is that there’s a minister appointed by the President to oversee the sector.
“And legitimately so, the individuals of Ghana would at all times maintain the minister accountable. And by that, I take full accountability.”
Pressed on how he intends to handle the disaster, Jinapor acknowledged the stakes are excessive. “Your predecessors have mentioned that as power minister, you reside or die by how profitable you’re in managing the ability sector,” the host famous.
“That may be very true,” Jinapor agreed. “Ghana’s energy sector has been fairly checkered, and it’s been very troublesome. I’ve been deputy minister earlier than. I’ve nearly acted earlier than on this sector. And now I’m a substantive minister. So I perceive the enormity of the problem.”
However the Minister mentioned he’s dedicated to turning issues round.
“President Mahama selected me as minister as a result of he thinks and believes I can do that work. And so I’m decided to do no matter it takes as minister to enhance the sector, and be certain that by the point I depart workplace, this sector can have been a lot, significantly better than I inherited.”
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