By Iddi Yire
Accra, July 10, GNA – The Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo deserves commendations for keeping the lights on since 2017, Mr. Herbert Krapa, the Minister of State-Designate at the Energy Ministry, has said.
The Minister of State-Designate stated this when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for his vetting at Parliament House in Accra.
Mr. Krapa, until his nomination by President Nana Akufo-Addo for the position had been Deputy Minister for Energy under Dr Mathiew Opoku Prempeh, now running mate to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party for Ghana’s December 7, 2024 general elections.
President Dankwa Akufo-Addo last week requested for Parliament’s prior approval of the Minister of State-Designate at the Ministry of Energy, Herbert Krapa.
In a notice on Monday, July 8, 2024, Parliament invited memoranda from the public on the nominee to do so by the close of Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
When he appeared before the Commitee, Mr. Krapa identified the challenge of supply of electricity.
He said: “Mr. Chairman, what we saw between 2012 and 2016, is the worst and longest of power crises. “The problem was that we didn’t have the reserve capacity, we didn’t have enough dependable capacity to meet the demands, which I think was caused by two major factors – lack of planning and lack of timely investment into the sector; and that is why we saw the problems that we saw between 2012 and 2016, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power.
“There wasn’t any integrated planning and there weren’t timely investments into the sector; so, when the investment eventually came, it was in the form of an emergency and the further problems that was created were that more capacity was procured than we needed, further bequeathing the economy with enormous debts. “
He noted that in trying to solve the problem in an emergency way, Ghanaians ended up creating some more problems for themselves.
Mr. Krupa added: “That is the problem that we faced at that time. When the lights will be on barely for 12 hours and off for 24 hours, that is not the situation that we saw briefly in the last couple of months.
“Now our generating capacity that we have far outreach the demands that we have. Now our higher peak demand, which was recorded last year is 3,618 megawatts and we have a capacity of over 5,639 megawatts capacity as a country.”
The Minister Designate at the Energy Ministry noted that looking at the difference, there could be no way that one could compare the current situation where there was enough generating capacity which outreached demand, to the one where demand was more than the generating capacity.
He attributed the energy situation the country went through in the last couple of months to a very significant drop in the Bui Hydroelectric Dam Water Level, issues with some of the power plants going down around the same time and of course some fuel procurement issues.
The Minister of State-Designate said he was thankful they had been able to put those matters behind them.
“The Ghanaian people can attest to the fact that the lights are on and they are able to go about economic activities to earn their livelihoods in a manner that they desire and we believe that the situation will continue the way it is going forward under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” Mr. Krapa said.
GNA