Former Board Member of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Ishmael Agyekumhene, has taken a swipe at Energy Minister John Jinapor over Ghana’s deepening power crisis, urging him to take full responsibility rather than offer repeated excuses.
Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Thursday, May 15, Mr Agyekumhene criticised the Minister for failing to secure adequate liquid fuel supplies nearly four months into his tenure.
“Telling us today that we have only two and a half days of liquid fuel? I could understand if this was immediately after he took office, but he’s had enough time to make arrangements. The Minister should stop giving excuses—it’s long enough for us to have secured the liquid fuel.”
He conceded that unforeseen disruptions such as issues at the Atuabo gas processing plant may occur, but maintained that the situation reflects poor planning. “It does happen, it happened previously too, but there’s no excuse when we don’t have the cash to buy fuel because we failed to plan adequately.”
His remarks follow the Minister’s disclosure to Parliament’s Energy Committee that the country has just 2.6 days’ worth of liquid fuel left to power thermal plants, with the Ministry racing against time to raise funds for fuel procurement.
But Mr Agyekumhene argued that the crisis is not just about fuel availability, but symptomatic of broader structural and financial failures in the power sector.
“The truth is, no one sells crude oil on credit. A single cargo costs about $50 million, and we don’t have the cash. Yet, if ECG were collecting money for power consumed, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
He also called out inconsistencies in the Minister’s stance over the years.
“When he was in opposition, the Minister kept saying we had no excess capacity. Now he admits there is, but the irony is we’re not even paying for power that’s already been produced—and we still owe for idle capacity.”
Mr Agyekumhene urged the government to urgently fix revenue collection lapses and prioritise more efficient gas-based power generation over the continued reliance on expensive liquid fuels.
“Everyone managing the sector knows gas is cheaper. If there’s no gas, then at least we should have strategic reserves of liquid fuel—not just two days, but at least a month.”
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