Lies & Excuses Over Dumsor: Minority Blows $700M Energy Debt Alarm

The Minority in Parliament has rejected claims that the recent fire at the Akosombo Substation is the main cause of Ghana’s ongoing power outages, insisting that the country’s electricity challenges began long before the incident.

They have also called for greater accountability from government and sector institutions. They insist the problem is deeper and more long-standing than is being presented.

At a press conference on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako-Mensah, said Ghanaians have been experiencing unstable electricity supply for months, making it misleading to blame the current situation solely on the April 23, 2026 fire outbreak.

“Ghana’s power crisis, the dumsor that millions of Ghanaians have been enduring since January 25, 2026, was not caused by any accident at Akosombo. It was caused by this government”, Collins Adomako-Mensah stated.

According to him, households and businesses across the country have already been struggling with frequent outages, which have disrupted daily life and affected livelihoods even before the fire incident.

He argued that the situation at the Akosombo Substation is only part of a larger failure within the energy sector. He said,
“The events of 23rd April are the latest and most dramatic symptom of a power sector left to decay under the NDC’s incompetent stewardship.”

Collins Adomako-Mensah further cautioned against attempts to shift responsibility, insisting that government must not use the fire as an excuse to avoid addressing deeper structural issues.

“The Mahama government must not be permitted to use this incident as a convenient alibi for a crisis that predates it by more than a year, and the NPP Minority will not allow that cynical rewriting of history to pass unchallenged,” he added.

The Minority explained that before the fire, many communities were already experiencing persistent and unplanned power cuts. They said the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had repeatedly issued emergency notices and maintenance alerts in April, which showed that the system was already under serious strain.

“Long before the event of 23rd April 2026, Ghanaians across every region of this country had been enduring persistent, unannounced, and devastating power outages,” he said.

He added that the impact on citizens had been severe, affecting businesses, healthcare delivery, and household life.

Collins Adomako-Mensah stated, “Communities were living in darkness, not for hours, but for days. Industries were hemorrhaging losses. Cold stores were warm. Hospitals were straining on generators,” and concluded, “that was the reality of Ghana’s power sector before any incident at Akosombo.”

Meanwhile, the Minority has also criticised the decision for the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Ing. Mark Awuah Baah, to step aside. They described the move as cosmetic and unlikely to resolve the country’s ongoing power challenges.

Collins Adomako-Mensah said leadership changes alone will not fix the structural problems in the sector. He argued that such decisions may create headlines but do not produce electricity.

“The decision to ask the GRIDCo CEO to step aside and to reshuffle ECG’s Ashanti Regional leadership may generate headlines. It will not generate electricity,” he stated.

He further accused government of managing the crisis politically rather than addressing its root causes. He said,
“What Ghana is witnessing is not accountability; it is the political management and embarrassment by an administration caught off guard by the consequences of its own inactions.”

He also defended the GRIDCo CEO, saying the challenges in the power sector go beyond any single individual. He pointed to issues such as chronic underfunding, unpaid debts to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), and delayed maintenance as long-standing problems.

“To hold him publicly accountable while shielding the policy architects of this situation is not justice; it is deflection dressed up as decisive leadership,” he stressed.

He also supported calls for investigations into the fire at the Akosombo Power Control Centre, saying transparency is important. He noted,
“We do not oppose investigation. Any inquiry into events at critical national infrastructure must be thorough and transparent.”

On its part, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has admitted that unplanned outages are ongoing in parts of the country. It attributed the situation to ageing infrastructure, weak cables, and overloaded transformers.

ECG says it is working on a nationwide upgrade programme called the Transformer Upgrade and Replacement Programme (TURP), which will install over 2,500 transformers to improve stability.

The company has apologised to customers for the inconvenience and assured that repair works are ongoing. It also encouraged the public to report outages through its hotline on 0302611611.

ECG reaffirmed its commitment to improving electricity supply, saying the upgrades are necessary for a more stable and reliable national power system.