The Member of Parliament for the Yapei-Kusawgu of the Savannah Region and Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament Hon John Abdulai Jinapor has said that the current power outages in the country popularly known as ‘Dumsor’ is due to financial challenges and not because of technical challenges as being claimed by GRIDCo and some government officials.

The MP said; “It is a well-known fact especially amongst energy sector players that the current outages in the country is due to financial challenges and not because of technical challenges as being claimed by GRIDCo and Government officials.

The MP in a statement said the transmission lines and transformers are congested due to underinvestment and lack of regular maintenance resulting from the poor financial health of the energy sector State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Hon John Abdulai Jinapor also explained that; “most of the energy sector SOEs have continued to witness worsening financial positions since the assumption of office by President Akufo-Addo despite his administration receiving over GHS12 billion in Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) revenues and almost GHS20 billion in petroleum revenues over the past four years”.

He said GRIDCo posted profits in 2016 but has taken a turn for the worst with a total comprehensive loss of over 600 million cedis as captured in their 2018 financial Statement.

He further stated that the Electricity Company of Ghana which recorded a profit of over GHS500 million under former President John Mahama in 2016 has posted cumulative losses of over GHS4 billion since the 2017 financial year.

“Due to the worsening financial position of GRIDCo, Agence Française de Développement has had to withhold funding for a major upgrade of the National transmission line culminating in congestion of the GRID,” he said.

Mr Jinapor called on the government to be honest with Ghanaians instead of denying and misinforming the populace.

“Government must, therefore, come clean on the current power crisis as a matter of urgency and desist from engaging in the blame game. Shifting blame and providing conflicting information only goes to exacerbate the crisis which is threatening lives and businesses across the country”; Hon John Jinapor said.