President John Dramani Mahama has said ongoing power interruptions across parts of the country should not be described as “dumsor,” arguing instead that they are linked to a planned nationwide upgrade of electricity infrastructure.
He made the remarks on Sunday (19 April) during a visit to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company as part of his “Resetting Ghana” tour, where he inspected transformer installations under a national replacement programme.
Large-scale replacement
He said aging infrastructure, including transformers installed decades ago, had become insufficient to meet current demand, contributing to supply instability.
“In the 1980s, when we started the national electrification program, at that time the population of Ghana was smaller than it is…Today we are 33 million, and it means that all our communities are expanding,” he said.
“And so, if we take the example of a transformer in Nungua, which was 22 years old, and since then the community has expanded beyond the capacity of a transformer, that’s how the lights have been very unstable,” he said.
Mahama said the government had approved a large-scale replacement programme involving about 2,500 transformers, backed by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance.
“The minister made a request, and the cabinet approved this, and the Ministry of Finance came in to assist the Ministry of Energy and acquired a lot of transformers for installation nationwide, currently 2500 transformers,” he said.
Phased rollout
He said the rollout would continue in phases, with old equipment gradually replaced to improve the stability of the national grid.
“We are going to see stable power after this first phase, and after that, we will constantly keep taking out the old transformers so that Ghana can have stable power,” he said.
Addressing public concerns over electricity interruptions, Mahama pushed back on characterizations of a return to prolonged outages locally known as “dumsor.”
“I will appeal to the people that the outages we are facing are not due to dumsor, it is to enable you to get better quality and stable power,” he said.
He added that communities would be informed in advance of scheduled outages during installation work.
“Anytime we are going to replace transformers, we will inform the people so they will be aware their lights are going to be put off when their transformers are installed,” he said.
NDC not convinced
Ghana has in the past experienced periods of prolonged power shortages, widely referred to as “dumsor,” prompting successive governments to invest in generation and distribution upgrades to stabilize supply.
A member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region has publicly criticized the government’s handling of power supply in the Ashanti Region, accusing Energy Minister John Jinapor of failing to address persistent outages.
In a Facebook post addressed to President John Mahama, Isaac Asante Jnr. said ongoing electricity disruptions were affecting communication and daily activities in the region.
“The lights are not on… John Jinapor is sleeping on the job, which makes communication difficult for us in the Ashanti Region,” he wrote.
Asante also issued a warning to officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in Kumasi, urging them to “exercise extreme caution” and take immediate steps to resolve the outages.
Assurance
Meanwhile, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has reassured residents and businesses in Kumasi that ongoing system upgrades are underway to improve power supply reliability as the city’s rapid growth drives higher electricity demand.
ECG clarified that the intermittent outages experienced in parts of the Ashanti Region are not load shedding. Instead, they stem mainly from technical faults, upstream transmission challenges, and planned maintenance work.
Speaking on the situation, a Communications Officer at ECG noted that Kumasi’s population now exceeds 4 million and is growing by more than 3 percent each year.
“Kumasi is expanding rapidly, and with that growth comes increased demand for electricity. What we are seeing is not load shedding, but pressure on infrastructure that we are actively upgrading to meet both current and future needs,” he said.
Localized faults
He explained that most outages are linked to localized faults such as damaged underground cables, transformer failures, and fallen conductors, which ECG’s technical teams typically resolve within short timeframes.
Some disruptions also originate from upstream transmission issues, reflecting the interconnected nature of the national grid. ECG emphasized that planned maintenance, while sometimes inconvenient, is essential to strengthen the network and prevent longer, more severe outages.
“Our engineers are working around the clock, not only to restore supply quickly when faults occur, but also to reinforce the system to make it more resilient,” the Communications Officer added.
The company apologized for the inconvenience and reaffirmed its commitment to improving real-time communication, speeding up response times, and investing in infrastructure upgrades to serve Kumasi’s growing needs.
