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If You Want Electricity at any Cost, buy a Generator – Ayariga

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Minister
of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mahama Ayariga, has
stated that if Ghanaians are indeed willing to pay any amount for the
constant supply of electricity, then they should be willing to buy
generator sets.

 

According to him, the perception
that citizens are desperate for power and would thus pay any amount for
the constant supply of the commodity is untrue.

 

This,
he said, is the reason why the government is working to ensure every
Ghanaian will be supplied with electricity at an affordable price
although that dream would take a while to materialize.

 

“People
are not willing to pay high cost of electricity at all cost. If they
were willing, the current cost of having electricity is to have a
private generator.

 

“People are not willing
to get electricity at all cost so we have to make sure that we supply
the commodity to people at a reasonable cost and that is why we must
have a collective generation programme…and that is what we are trying to
do and it will take time,” he remarked.

The Bawku
Central Member of Parliament on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The
Big Issue revealed that he has never used a generator set until recently
when the Sports Ministry forced him to do so.

 

According
to him, he made that political decision because it was imperative for
him to feel what the masses were experiencing with the power crisis.

 

“I
just made it a political point not to [use a generator] because I kept
telling people that if I am the Minister and there is a problem and
people are sleeping in darkness, the best you can do is also sympathize
with them by sleeping in the darkness. So yes, I have lived the
problem,” he said. Ghana has been battling with severe energy challenges
for about three years now.

 

The situation has intensified as citizens now enjoy 24 hours without light and 12 hours of electricity supply.

 

Although
this is the schedule the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has given
to the public, some areas are reportedly experiencing over 72 hours of
no power supply.

 

This has affected many businesses and has resulted in low productivity and the loss of thousands of jobs.

 

Many
however complain that government is failing to urgently address the
problem because government officials have generator sets in their homes
and offices.

 

But Ayariga insisted that
that public perception is untrue because he knows how it “feels and in
all the places I have lived, I have never used generators.” According to
him, it is until recently that he started using a generator set in his
home.

 

He explained saying, “the official
bungalow I was given, there was actually a generator there but I think
it broke down and frankly speaking, because I don’t use a generator, I
never fixed it.”

 

“…if you ask the entire
neighbourhood, they will tell you that most of the time when the lights
were off, in my house too, the lights would be off because I told people
that I didn’t feel comfortable. It was actually recently that the
Minister of Sports insisted on sending somebody to go and fix it because
sometimes, I need to work at night. So I understand,” he added.

 

The
former Sports Minister stressed that every member of government
“regrets the situation” because “we all know how many businesses cannot
function effectively because they have to resort to other energy sources
which are more expensive.”

 

 

 
 
 
Credit: citifmonline.com

Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku

I am a Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist/Writer who has an interest in General News, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle and many more.

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