Ghana’s power crisis to persist until end of year – IES warns

Ghana’s ongoing power outages, known as dumsor, could continue until the end of the year unless critical issues within the energy sector are urgently addressed, the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has warned.

His remarks come amid growing public frustration over intermittent power supply, which has raised concerns about the stability of the national electricity grid. Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, February 21, 2025, Nana Amoasi VII attributed the crisis to inefficiencies within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), ageing infrastructure, and financial constraints affecting key players in the energy sector.

He explained that Ghana’s power generation capacity is stretched to its limits, with demand frequently matching or exceeding supply. Additionally, fuel shortages and forced maintenance shutdowns have further strained the system, making it difficult to guarantee stable electricity distribution.

“Until ECG fixes its inefficiency, collects enough revenue, and ensures that each participant within the energy sector gets a fair share of the revenue, we will continue to have this challenge,” he said. “GRIDCo is struggling to invest in its ageing infrastructure, and ECG itself is suffering. Power generators—whether public or private—are also struggling because they need funds to sustain operations. WAPCo, which supplies natural gas, is also facing difficulties.”

He stressed that unless these structural problems are addressed, dumsor will persist throughout the year.

The situation has been worsened by the government’s inability to settle a $75 million debt owed to N-Gas Limited, the supplier of gas to Ghana through the West Africa Gas Pipeline.

Meanwhile, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has urged Ghanaians to be patient as the government works to resolve the crisis. He cited the country’s lack of spare capacity as a major contributing factor to the current power challenges.