President John Dramani Mahama has moved to allay public fears over intermittent power cuts, stressing that the disruptions are part of system upgrades and not a return to the infamous “dumsor” era.
Speaking during a visit to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) as part of his “Resetting Ghana” tour, the President acknowledged growing public concern but urged citizens to view the outages as temporary measures to improve long-term reliability.
He disclosed that the government has procured approximately 2,500 transformers under the first phase of a nationwide intervention aimed at replacing ageing and overloaded equipment.
“I’ll appeal to our people. The outages you are facing are not ‘dumsor.’ It is to enable you to get better quality and stable power,” President Mahama said. “Any time transformers are being replaced, people in affected areas should be informed so they are aware their lights will be off for a while.”
The President noted that rapid population growth and expanding communities have rendered many existing transformers inadequate, with some equipment installed decades ago unable to meet current demand.
Local Manufacturing A Key Priority
President Mahama welcomed the increasing local production of transformers, describing it as a vital step towards building domestic capacity in the energy sector.
“One of the things I’m happy about is that a lot of these transformers are made in Ghana. It helps multiply the benefits for our country,” he said. “I look forward to the day when all our transformers will be produced locally, helping us fully stabilise the power situation in our country.”
He also called on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and NEDCo to improve customer response times, stressing the need for faster fault resolution and better communication with consumers.
Rollout Underway In Key Regions
Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor confirmed that the rollout of new transformers has already begun in parts of the country, including Tamale, Accra and Tema, with further installations planned for Kumasi and other regions.
He explained that the first phase of the programme is expected to run for three months before transitioning into medium- and long-term targets, and appealed to the public to remain patient while assuring that customers would be notified in advance of planned outages.
The interventions form part of a wider government strategy to modernise Ghana’s electricity distribution network and prevent a recurrence of past power supply challenges.
