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| Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor |
He thanked the former Minister for his services as the pioneer Minister of the sector.
Dr. Donkor resigned December 31, 2015 over the power crisis.
President Mahama created the Ministry of Power on Saturday November 22, 2014 in a bid to resolve the country’s long-standing electricity crisis which has come to be known as dumsor.
According to the Ghana Social Development Outlook (GSDO) 2014 of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana dumsor is costing the country about $1 million a year.
In its 2014 “State of the Ghanaian Economy Report” ISSER found that the government of Ghana has only been able to achieve a mere 0.1 per cent of its targeted 10 per cent increment in energy from 2010 to 2020.
“Two thirds of rail have been dormant for 12 years and would require reconstruction, national freshwater resources are under siege from mining activities, and recycling and composting have not been given attention,” it said.
The government had hoped to increase power generation from 2,300 to 5,000 megawatts by 2017.
When the Ministry was created, Dr. Donkor, who was then the chairman of Parliament’s Energy Committee, was appointed to head it. Dr. Donkor, once served as deputy Energy Minister.
Before the Ministry was created, power production was under the Energy Ministry.
In June this year Dr. Donkor, reassured Ghanaians that the national load shedding exercise would be over by December. He also promised that if it continues, he would resign.
Yesterday, December 30, the Power Ministry issued a statement saying the load shedding programme was over, but shortly after that the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Ing. William Amuna stated emphatically that the erratic power supply in the country was not over yet, saying the load shedding exercise has not been suspended.
He is the second Minister of State to resign recently. The Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor resigned December 23, 2015.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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