Publication of load shedding timetable can be done – Osafo-Maafo

The publication of a load-shedding timetable by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is something that can be done, Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said.

However, he said, it is an action that can only be ordered by the Minister of Energy.

He told TV3’s Duke Mensah-Opoku in an interview on the sidelines of a forum on open government partnerships and construction sector transparency in Accra, on Tuesday, April 23, that “To publish the rationing of the power, nobody can do it except the Minister of Energy because he is seeing the generation and they [ECG] are looking at the utilization so they can look at it and say that in this particular area, this is how it should be done but it something which can be done, because what you have and what you have to use and the spread.”

Calls have been intensified to the government to release a load-shedding schedule to enable the people to plan their lives properly.

For instance, a Governance Expert Professor Baffuor Agyeman-Duah said the wisest thing to do at the moment is to release the schedule.

“The wise thing to do is to issue a timetable,” Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Monday April 22.

He further criticized the government for the snail’s pace with which it is finding solutions to the power challenges.

He believes that given the rate at which the power outages occur, the government should have at least attached all seriousness to finding lasting solutions but that has not been the case.

He said “The government hasn’t been too active in seeking solutions to problems”

Meanwhile, the Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has admitted that the power outages in parts of the country are frustrating.

However, he said, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the challenge.

Mr Ahiagbah attributed the situation to the maintenance work being carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

He assured that the work will soon be completed.

“The recent power outages have been understandably frustrating. However, there is an end in sight. The maintenance works are almost complete, and we can soon expect access to an uninterrupted power supply around the clock, as we have become accustomed to under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia Administration.”

Regarding the criticism the members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have made against the government over the outages, he said “The NDC is the last political organization to point fingers because Ghana has not forgotten the hurts of the ‘real dumsor,’ suffered under H.E. Mahama.