The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has discounted the unprecedented achievements claimed by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government regarding the energy sector.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea, refuted the first-time achievements mentioned in the 2012 NDC manifesto.
The NDC manifesto reveals that under the leadership of the NDC government, 376 megawatts generation capacity of electricity has been added to the base capacity in 2011.
Mr. Akomea, who was commenting on the challenges existing in the power sector, disclosed that these achievements are based on some energy projects initiated during the Kufour administration.
According to him, the NPP government among others secured funds for projects such as the $90m from China to connect 580 communities which had connected 300 communities by the end of 2008 as well as another $ 170 million also from China to connect 700 communities.
“In 2007, also as a response to the crisis caused by drought, the NPP embarked on a massive energy conservation project. Six million energy saving lamps (CFLs) were distributed free of charge to Ghanaians. This reduced peak demand for electricity by 124 MW,” he revealed.
Nana Akomea slammed the government for the load-shedding exercise currently taking place across the country saying; “The NPP wants to bring new thinking into every aspect of Ghanaian life, including even load shedding. When it becomes necessary to ration electricity, the NPP will depart from the current situation where whole areas are blacked out totally.”
He said “the NPP plans to assist domestic consumers to acquire portable, battery operated power banks (akin to UPS) that store power and make it available for considerable time when the mains is off.”
The Communications Director says even though governance is a progressive continuum, the ruling government is erroneous in using these energy initiatives in canvassing for votes for a next tenure in office.
“…when you move from the propaganda, you find that the rural electrification projects claimed by the NDC were either planned or initiated by the NPP, which also secured funds for them, starting from 2007,” Nana Akomea said.
Read the full statement below
Source: GhanaWeb
