‘Vampire’ investors milking Ghana dry – ACEP

Over the years, successive governments in Ghana have failed to adopt prudent policies in the power sector to break away from under-investment, a situation, which has brought the country’s power sector on its knees, energy think tank Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has said.

ACEP says Ghana’s failure to invest in the power sector makes the country vulnerable and, thus, susceptible to the vagaries of ‘vampire political investors’.

Ghana has been saddled with erratic power supply for the past four years, a situation which has crippled several businesses in the country. President John Dramani Mahama recently attributed the energy crisis to sabotage in the supply of crude oil from Nigeria.

A deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu last week told Prince Minkah, host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3 FM that about 550, 000 barrels of crude oil had arrived to deal with the energy situation.

But in its ‘Citizens' Energy Manifesto’, ACEP noted that: “Over the past three decades, Ghana has not followed the path of breaking away from the historical under-investment in its power infrastructure, which has now brought the country to its knees, getting only temporary reliefs at the mercy of vampire political investors and its neighbour Nigeria, for supply of fuel.

“This, in addition to poor management and financial challenges, has dwarfed the potential of what could be a strong middle-income economy. Power cuts have been cyclical and each of the load shedding over the years, has been worse than the previous. With the current power challenges having lasted for five years, it is scary to imagine another future power crisis. This worrying trend has no place in a developing country like Ghana with enormous potential for industrial growth.”