‘Dumsor’ not Mahama’s fault – Sydney Casley Hayford

General News of Sunday, 25 January 2015

Source: citifmonline.com

Sydney Casley Hayford Headshot

President Mahama is not responsible for the challenges bedevilling the power sector, a Financial Analyst, Sydney Casley Hayford has stated.

President Mahama on Wednesday took responsibility for the crisis the sector has been battling with over the past few years.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Germany during his official visit to the country, Mahama said “I accept the responsibility for it, and I will work to resolve it.

However, speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, Sydney Casley Hayford said the President cannot take responsibility for the power crisis since it existed before he came to power.

“President Mahama is not responsible for anything that is going wrong in the power sector. It is not his fault…the challenges have been existing years ago before he came to power…,” Casley Hayford said

He rather attributed the challenges to a systemic failure by various institutions responsible for power supply, saying “…we haven’t invested consistently enough in the power sector, we haven’t planned well enough for urban spread and urban growth,we haven’t been able to address the issue of demand on power and energy consistently enough over the years…”

Ghana has been struggling with inconsistent power supply in the last two years. The President has made some interventions including appointing a new Minister for Power while power plants have been built to augment power supply, but the challenges are still not over.

Energy analysts and industry players have predicted that the current energy situation might worsen in 2015.

Germany has pledged massive support for Ghana’s energy sector to help strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries and also resolve the inconsistent power supply.