The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has attributed Ghana’s recent improvement in power stability to significant investments in the energy sector, following a precarious period of widespread load shedding and near-total depletion of liquid fuel reserves.
Speaking to the media, the Ministry’s Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Richmond Rockson, Esq, revealed that as recently as December 2024, the country was shedding more than 700 megawatts of power due to inadequate fuel supply and generation shortfalls.
“As at December 2024, we were shedding load of over 700 megawatts, and the data is there for everyone to reference,” he stated.
“In January, just before the swearing-in of the current administration, even liquid fuels to power our thermal plants were almost non-existent, we had just over two days’ supply.”
Mr. Rockson said the situation had pushed the country to the brink of a full-blown power crisis but credited the turnaround over the past three to four months to swift interventions led by the Minister for Energy and Green Transition.
“It was very difficult over the last three or four months, but due to the work that has been done by the Minister, we have seen vast improvement in our grid,” he added.
A central part of the government’s strategy, he explained, has been heavy investment in securing liquid fuels for power generation, a measure the Ministry described as costly but unavoidable.
According to him, Ghana spent over $1 billion on liquid fuels in 2024, with projections for 2025 estimated at $1.2 billion.
“One of the critical reasons, in fact, primarily for the introduction of the additional 1 cedi under ESLA, which some refer to as the ‘Dumsor Levy’, is to ensure adequate provision of liquid fuels,” he explained. “It was a critical decision to stabilise the grid and avoid the recurrence of load shedding.”
The spokesperson reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to long-term solutions under the Green Transition agenda but stressed that current fuel investments were indispensable to prevent the collapse of the national grid.
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