Month: February 2015

President John Dramani Mahama has once again promised to bring to an end the ever-worsening energy crisis in the country.

Delivering perhaps his penultimate State of The Nation Address in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana which states “the President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the state of the nation,” President Mahama quickly tackled headlong the issue of the prolonged power crisis which has left the country reeling in darkness and vowed to “fix it” and not “manage the situation”.

In a speech laced with metaphors, he equated the difficulties being faced by the country in resolving the erratic power crisis to the constant challenges one faces in life. He noted that as the nation turns 58 in a few days time, the realization that comes to the fore is, one climbs the greatest hill only to find there are many more hills to climb.

To the president, “one of such hills is to provide power to Ghanaians,” stressing that his administration does “not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past”.

“We have climbed many hills together and we shall climb many more….One of such hills is to provide power to Ghanaians….The effect of this power crisis has affected all Ghanaians….We have been here before in 1998, 2007…In the past what we have done is try to manage ourselves out of the situation. I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past, I intend to fix it. I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge,” he vowed.

How

In solving the power challenge, the President outlined a number of measures including ensuring that majority of homes in the country use solar energy.

“We’re working on a proposal to make solar energy available to micro-enterprises & household… By 2016 there will be the addition of 3,665 megawatts to the power grid. New Ministry of power is working on proposals to restructure the power sector beginning with the VRA and the Bui Power Authority. We expect starting from this year and over the next five years to inject 3665 megawatts of power into our power transmission grid,” he said.

Lessons

The lesson we must learn from this energy crisis, according to the President, is to ‘plan better for the future’.

“We would have to double our electricity supplies every eight years to keep up with the demand,” he added.

Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor has been summoned to Parliament to brief the House on the power purchase agreement for the deployment of powership from Turkey.

The powership has the capacity to produce 450 megawatts of power to augment the country’s current energy supply.

The summon follows concerns raised by members of the House on the agreement and whether or not it requires parliamentary approval.

Member of Parliament for Effutu in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo-Markin moved the proposal on the floor and demanded clarity on the agreement.

The MP said government must not be allowed to go ahead with the deal until it is fully scrutinised and due diligence is done.

He said the House will consider a court action if government fails to brief members on the deal.

“If government remains adamant we will take the matter to the Supreme Court because we must not encourage government to breach the constitution,” he stated.

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebo Barton Oduro who sat in for the substantive Speaker has consequently directed the Business Committee of Parliament to make room for the Power Minister to brief the House on the power purchase agreement.

Meanwhile the Majority Leader of Parliament, Alban Bagbin said a report to investigate the current energy crisis in the country will be ready next week.

Most Ghanaians are expectant of some hope to the end of the energy crises in the country from the president as he delivers the state of the nation’s address today in Parliament.

A number of people Ghanadistricts.com spoke with are more concerned about the energy sector and the economy as a whole than any other developmental issue as these are the two main driving force of the
economy.

Though government has already outlined some short and long term measures to dealing with the energy crises the people are expecting some assurance from the president.

The energy crises has hit all sectors of the economy including business forcing them to lay-off some workers, and other business also closing down completely. It will therefore be great sigh of relieve if the
problem can be addressed as soon as possible.

It is also expected that the President will come clean on how far the government has gone with negotiations with the IMF on the bailout package which is hoped to bring the economy back on track.

Ghanamps.gov.gh will follow the presentation and keep our readers informed.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

President John Dramani Mahama has once again promised to bring to an end the ever-worsening energy crisis in the country.

Delivering perhaps his penultimate State of The Nation Address in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana which states “the President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the state of the nation,” President Mahama quickly tackled headlong the issue of the prolonged power crisis which has left the country reeling in darkness and vowed to “fix it” and not “manage the situation”.

In a speech laced with metaphors, he equated the difficulties being faced by the country in resolving the erratic power crisis to the constant challenges one faces in life. He noted that as the nation turns 58 in a few days time, the realization that comes to the fore is, one climbs the greatest hill only to find there are many more hills to climb.

To the president, “one of such hills is to provide power to Ghanaians,” stressing that his administration does “not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past”.

“We have climbed many hills together and we shall climb many more….One of such hills is to provide power to Ghanaians….The effect of this power crisis has affected all Ghanaians….We have been here before in 1998, 2007…In the past what we have done is try to manage ourselves out of the situation. I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past, I intend to fix it. I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge,” he vowed.

 In solving the power challenge, the President outlined a number of measures including ensuring that majority of homes in the country use solar energy.

“We’re working on a proposal to make solar energy available to micro-enterprises & household… By 2016 there will be the addition of 3,665 megawatts to the power grid. New Ministry of power is working on proposals to restructure the power sector beginning with the VRA and the Bui Power Authority. We expect starting from this year and over the next five years to inject 3665 megawatts of power into our power transmission grid,” he said.

Lessons

The lesson we must learn from this energy crisis, according to the President, is to ‘plan better for the future’.

“We would have to double our electricity supplies every eight years to keep up with the demand,” he added.

Most Ghanaians are expectant of some hope to the end of the energy crises in the country from the president as he delivers the state of the nation’s address today in Parliament.

A number of people Ghanadistricts.com spoke with are more concerned about the energy sector and the economy as a whole than any other developmental issue as these are the two main driving force of the
economy.

Though government has already outlined some short and long term measures to dealing with the energy crises the people are expecting some assurance from the president.

The energy crises has hit all sectors of the economy including business forcing them to lay-off some workers, and other business also closing down completely. It will therefore be great sigh of relieve if the
problem can be addressed as soon as possible.

It is also expected that the President will come clean on how far the government has gone with negotiations with the IMF on the bailout package which is hoped to bring the economy back on track.

Ghanamps.gov.gh will follow the presentation and keep our readers informed.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Lack of effective supervision by the Central Bank of Ghana led to the very famous DKM case where hundreds of customers of a microfinance institution have had their savings go waste, Ghana’s president John Mahama has said.

In a State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, President Mahama said the Bank of Ghana has to be blamed for the rather callous manner in which many households have had their livelihood tampered with.

The supervision he added if it had been provided, would have avoided what is now a sad story that has led to many arrests.

Mahama told a packed Parliament in Ghana’s capital, Accra, that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to ensure that the investors get their funds back.

The President gave his last State of the Nation address ahead of elections in November.

Thursday’s address was partly retrospective and progressive as he gave account of his stewardship in the last few years of his term in office as well as revisit some of the major challenges he’s confronted, and the gains made in the process.

While the minority members of Parliament heckled him all throughout, he had loud cheers from his government’s representatives.