The Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has cautioned that Ghana’s persistent power outages, referred to as dumsor, are likely to continue until the end of the year unless urgent issues within the energy sector are resolved.
Nana Amoasi VII’s statement comes amid reports of widespread intermittent power supply, raising concerns about the stability of the national electricity grid.
In an interview with Eyewitness News on Friday, February 21, 2025, Nana Amoasi VII attributed the ongoing crisis to inefficiencies within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), aging infrastructure, and financial constraints faced by key energy sector players.
He highlighted that the country’s power generation capacity is critically low, with demand often matching or surpassing supply. He also pointed out that many power plants are frequently unavailable due to fuel shortages or necessary maintenance shutdowns, which further exacerbates the strain on electricity distribution.
“Until the ECG fixes its inefficiency, collects enough of the revenue, and ensures that each participant within the energy sector gets a fair share of the revenue, we will continue to have this challenge. This is because it will be difficult for the transmitter, GRIDCo, to invest in its ageing infrastructure, and even with ECG and its infrastructure, it is suffering.
“It will be difficult for the power generator, be it public or private, to generate power because they also need to make some input into the power generation. There will be difficulty for WAPCo to continue supplying the natural gas. So, we are in a very uncomfortable state.
“We know very well that we have these challenges, and until we address the inefficiencies in the ECG, I am sorry to say again that we will see dumsor till the end of the year,” he stated.
The crisis has been further compounded by the government’s inability to settle a $75 million debt owed to N-Gas Limited, which supplies gas to Ghana through the West Africa Gas Pipeline.
During a visit to the pipeline undergoing scheduled maintenance, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, urged the public to bear with the government as it works to resolve the supply disruptions.
He cited the country’s lack of spare capacity as a major factor contributing to the ongoing power challenges.
