Hard work has ended "dumsor" - President Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to work hard to ensure that the country is not plunged into darkness again.
Advertisement
The president who praised himself for bringing an end to the erratic power supply that challenged Ghana in the past four years, said a lot more work needs to be done to sustain the country’s energy supply.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday during his State Of The Nation address, President Mahama said:, “A year ago, I stood before this very august house and promised to fix the power sector deficit that at the time had become a significant constraint to the economic growth and a destruction to Ghanaians both home and at work… I expressed my full regret to the nation and I took full responsibility as President and leader of this nation and commander in Chief. It has not been easy.”
Acknowledging that the erratic power supply affected business and for that matter the economy, the president noted that “hard work has made us to achieve the fastest mobilization of emergency power in the history of Ghana.”
President Mahama noted however that he would not take full credit for the successes made in the power and energy sector and expressed his appreciation to the former Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor and his Deputy, John Jinapor for their support.
“I salute the former Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor, and his Deputy Minister John Jinapor and their team of competent technical people. Mr. Armah Kofi Buah and his team at the Petroleum Ministry I salute them. I salute the CEOs and staff of the Energy Commission, PURC, GRIDCo, TICO, Ministry of Finance, ECG and others. It has taken teamwork and the cooperation of many people to achieve this success. I thank all who stood with me to overcome this challenge that our nation faced. I thank this august house for passing the agreements that made it possible for us to procure these additional plants,” he said.
The President stated that about 800 megawatts of power had been added to the national grid.
He mentioned the Kpone Thermal Power Plant (KTPP), the TICO, the Asogli phase two and Karpower plants as adding some 220 megawatts, 180 megawatts and 110 megawatts to the national grid respectively.
