Minister of State in charge of private-sector development and public private partnerships, Rashid Pelpuo has said the John Mahama administration will be the best, among all the Presidents Ghana has had since Independence, in tackling the country’s recurrent power crisis.

Ghana has been experiencing serious challenges with its power sector for the past few years resulting in hardships on businesses and domestic consumers.

Between 440 and 650 Megawatts of power is shed during off-peak and peak periods due to the supply shortfall, a situation which has resulted from poor water level in three hydro-electric power stations – Akosombo, Bui and Kpong – as well as faulty equipment, lack of gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline for thermal power production as well as lack of funds to buy light crude oil.

Government is now raising funds to bring in some emergency power barges from Turkey to help the situation.

There are reports government has had to fall on the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to provide funds for that purpose.

The main opposition New Patriotic Party has flung jabs at the Government for failing to deal with the situation.

But the Wa Central lawmaker told Ibrahim Alhassan of Starr News the power crisis is not peculiar with the Mahama Government, adding the situation has persisted since Independence in 1957.

“When we have a dry season and the volume of water reduces then the whole cycle starts again…and people are crying. That’s why from Nkrumah to date, every government has suffered ‘dumsor’, and every government has suffered a challenge.

“Thankfully it does appear to me, and it’s true that the John Mahama administration is going to be the best of all these governments in tackling the challenges of our electricity demand and production because the challenge has posed its own responses and the responses are massive and you can see the combination of efforts,” Pelpuo said.

He said: “In the end, we will have more other sources of energy than the hydro we have depended on all these years. And by 2016, the expectation is that we will get close to having 5,000 Megawatts, and if that happens that would have been the best ever in the history of this country that one single administration, within four years, has achieved such a feat.”