NDC has messed up Kufuor’s energy legacy – NPP

Former President John Kufuor left Ghana an adequate energy legacy, but the current government under the leadership of President John Mahama has messed up that heritage, General Secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said at a press conference.

“When we left power in 2009 as a government, we believe we left the NDC with adequate generating capacity.

“They should tell us the truth. What is happening? Today they tell you: ‘It’s gas from Nigeria. The next day: ‘There is no money to buy light crude oil.’” “The Government should come clean. There’s incompetence in the running of the power sector and the overload on [state power producer] VRA [Volta River Authority] is impacting their capacity to import the crude that will work the power plants,” Mr Agyepong said Tuesday January 3, 2015.

According to the NPP, “All the projects that were initiated during President Kufuor’s time, some of them have been commissioned during the NDC administration, so a lot of capacity have been added, but…the poor handling of the economy, [and] the stress that has been put on the finances of the treasury, is making it very difficult for them to procure the crude that is required to run some of these plants.”

Ghana is currently shedding between 450 and 650 Megawatts of power during off-peak and peak periods, respectively, as against the planned 250 and 350 Megawatts.

The production deficit, which has led to the lead shedding, has come about, according to the President and Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor, as a result of low level of water in the Akosombo, Bui and Kpong dams, as well as the lack of gas supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline in Nigeria (WAGPco) to power thermal plants in the country.