President John Dramani Mahama has said that the recent electricity outages in parts of Ghana are not a return of the prolonged power crisis known as “dumsor”, but are necessary to improve supply.

Speaking while inspecting new transformers acquired for the Northern Electricity Distribution Company Limited (NEDCo), President Mahama said the government had procured 2,500 transformers to replace ageing units nationwide.

“The outages you are facing are not dumsor,” he said. “It is to enable you to get better quality and stable power.”

The president traced Ghana’s electrification efforts to the 1980s, when the National Electrification Program began.

“At that time, the population of Ghana was much smaller than it is today — I think some 19 million or 18 million; today we’re 33 million,” he said.

“And it means that all our communities are expanding.”

He cited the case of a transformer in Nungua, Lashibi, which he said was 22 years old.

“You can imagine that the transformer was installed 22 years ago. And since then, the community has expanded beyond the capacity of the transformer; that’s why you have the lights being very unstable,” President Mahama said.

He added that for years, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and NEDCo had not carried out a “mass replacement of transformers to upgrade the power of the transformers to be able to meet the growing demand in the communities”.

According to the president, the energy minister made the request for new equipment and Cabinet approved it.

He noted that the Ministry of Finance then assisted the Ministry of Energy to acquire the transformers.

“We’re going to see stable power after this first phase,” he said. “After that, constantly we’ll keep taking out the old transformers so that Ghana can have stable power.”

President Mahama said residents would be notified before replacements.

“Anytime they are going to replace transformers, they'll inform the people in the area so that they are aware that their lights are going to be put off for a while until the transformers are installed.”

He welcomed the fact that many of the units were made locally.

“One of the things that I’m happy about is a lot of these transformers are produced locally in Ghana — they are Made-in-Ghana transformers. And so it also helps to multiply the benefits that our country is making,” he said.

“I’m looking to the day where all our transformers will be produced locally and we’ll be able to stabilise the power situation in our country.”

The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, said the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) operational area, had requested 400 but the government released 500 transformers .

“In Tamale, this very week, from Monday, we've already prepared the platforms and cured the concrete and everything — we are installing 30 transformers in Tamale alone,” he said. “In Bole, we are installing two transformers.”

The minister added: “Across the NEDCo operational area, we are installing high-capacity transformers to reduce outages, to ensure that we also deal with overloaded transformers and ensure overall stability in the supply of power.”

He stressed that the rollout was only beginning.

“So, I want to assure you that this is not just the end of it, this is just the beginning,” he said.

Dr Jinapor said work had also started in southern Ghana.

“In Accra, we've started with the primary distribution transformers. In Tema area, last week we completed with one; we are doing about 11 in Accra,” he said.

“Then we move to Kumasi in the month of May — first week of May we are moving to Kumasi. We are installing four new primary substations in addition to the distribution transformers you see, and we are pulling additional cables to ensure that we stabilise the power in Kumasi and Ashanti region in general.”

The minister said planning and procurement had taken time, but the project was now at the deployment stage.

He appealed for patience during the works and said customers would be notified in advance.

“We are launching a system where wherever we are going to work, we will pre-inform the customers so that they'll be aware. And when there are outages, please bear with us — it's for the good of it.”

He said the first phase of the programme will run for three months, followed by six-month and one-year targets.

“Within three months, we want to achieve a lot, then we move to the next six months and one year. Then we keep at pace; we don't want to go back to that scenario again.”

He thanked the president and the finance minister for their support.

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Ghana power cuts not dumsor but part of upgrade – President Mahama

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