Tampuli refutes Mahama’s claims of solving ‘dumsor’ before leaving office

Hon. Alhassan S. Tampuli, Member of Parliament for the Gushegu Constituency, has challenged claims that President John Dramani Mahama resolved Ghana’s power crisis, popularly known as ‘dumsor,’ before leaving office in 2017.

In a statement released under the banner of “Parliamentary Oversight,” Hon. Tampuli detailed the challenges the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government faced upon assuming office in January 2017, insisting that the power crisis persisted beyond Mahama’s tenure.

According to him, one of the immediate hurdles encountered was a significant shortfall in power generation, attributed to inadequate dependable generation capacity, fuel shortages, and the temporary shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant for maintenance from February 3 to 20, 2017.

This, he noted, resulted in a power supply deficit as plants like AMERI (230 MW), TAPCo (330 MW), and TiCo (220 MW) were either shut down or operating at reduced capacity.

Hon. Tampuli emphasized that the situation led to a total generation shortfall of 670 MW, prolonging the power crisis.

To address the issue, he stated that the NPP government took immediate steps, including procuring Light Crude Oil and Diesel to power idle plants.

Additionally, a delegation was sent to Côte d’Ivoire to negotiate an increase in power supply, despite Ghana’s existing debt of approximately $60 million to its neighbors.

The Gushegu legislator further criticized Mahama’s handling of the power sector, accusing his administration of over-contracting power capacity.

He revealed that by the end of 2016, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had signed 43 Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), with 23 others under discussion.

These agreements, he argued, committed Ghana to a total power capacity of 10,800 MW—about 8,000 MW more than the nation’s peak demand at the time.

This over-contracting of capacity did not resolve the power crisis but rather imposed serious financial and legal burdens on the government and power consumers, Tampuli stated.

He also added that by 2020, Ghana was paying an estimated $680 million annually for excess capacity, with total capacity charges reaching $2.3 billion between 2017 and 2021.

To mitigate the financial strain, he disclosed that the NPP government reviewed all PPAs, canceling or deferring some projects to ensure a more strategic deployment of generation capacity.

His statement directly counters claims by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Mahama administration had resolved the power crisis before exiting office.