Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has admitted that former President John Dramani Mahama helped get Ghana out of the period of erratic power supply, which became popularly known as “dumsor.”
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the thermal plants that the former president acquired helped stabilize the electricity supply to the country.
In a Hello FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, the leader of the majority caucus in parliament, however, indicated the plants came at a high cost, which the country is still grappling with.
“When we were experiencing ‘dumsor’, former president Mahama harshly took some steps to get us out of it. That is how come we procured the thermal plants to generate electricity for us.
“On the face of it, it was a good thing that he did. Except that, if you can recall, I have been saying that thermal plants were too expensive,” he said in Twi.
He added that the country was still paying $1 billion annually to cover the cost of the plants.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further stated that the plants were also a short-term solution.
“The thermal we procured have a life span of 10 years and if you service them well, they can take you up to 15 years at most and you will have to write them off,” he noted.
