Former Minister for Energy, Herbert Krapa, has refuted claims made by John Abdulai Jinapor, Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei-Kusawgu, suggesting that Ghana may face an imminent energy crisis due to the failure of the previous Akufo-Addo administration to stock adequate fuel.
In a statement shared on his Facebook page, Mr. Krapa dismissed Mr. Jinapor’s warnings of looming “massive load shedding” as baseless and accused the newly sworn-in Mahama government of displaying early signs of incompetence in managing the energy sector.
“Load shedding does not ‘loom,’” Mr. Krapa wrote. “It is caused either by technical or emergency power generation issues or a lack of competence in managing the power sector. Mr. Jinapor seems to be haunted clearly by the latter.”
The former energy minister emphasized that before leaving office, the Akufo-Addo administration ensured the availability of sufficient fuel for power generation. He detailed that Cenpower was operating with light crude oil left by the previous government, while AKSA was continuing to receive heavy fuel oil for its power generation needs.
“These facts are easily verifiable with a phone call to both power plants,” Mr. Krapa added. “The responsibility of the new administration is to procure more liquid fuel to keep the lights on whenever liquid fuel becomes required to complement gas supply, and to plan competently to avert power supply disruptions. We did it, and they can do it too—if they can.”
Mr. Krapa’s remarks come in response to Mr. Jinapor’s statement, in which the MP alleged that insufficient fuel stocks were endangering the nation’s energy security. Mr. Jinapor, who serves as the Co-Chairman of the Transition Team Sub-Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, criticized the Akufo-Addo government for allegedly leaving inadequate reserves.
In his post, Mr. Krapa called on the Mahama government to focus on finding solutions rather than engaging in blame games. “The NDC government should get to work as we did—the reason we kept the lights on for eight years, regardless of the difficult times. Stop the needless finger-pointing. That is not the way we kept the lights on,” he stated.
