We’ve averted ‘dumsor’ and addressed SHS food shortage – President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has affirmed that his government has successfully averted the looming power outages, commonly referred to as dumsor, in the country.

In its first week in office, the new administration faced an imminent power crisis caused by a shortage of fuel ahead of a planned maintenance (pigging) exercise on the West Africa Gas Pipeline.

This prompted the President to hold an emergency meeting with key energy sector stakeholders. As a result, the West Africa Pipeline Company (WAPCo) postponed the pigging exercise by two weeks.

Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of his first six ministers at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, 22nd January, President Mahama stated:

Through determined efforts, I can report that we have now averted the looming threat of power outages and began delivering fuel to the thermal plants in the east in advance of the shutdown of the West African gas pipeline.

President Mahama also highlighted the administration's swift short term interventions to address the shortage of food items in Senior High Schools (SHS), ensuring students could return to learning without disruption.

Similar timely interventions have been necessary in areas such as education where an acute food shortage was a major problem when schools were ordered to reopen on the 3rd of January. We have put in short-term measures to ensure that our children have adequate food so that they can go ahead with their learning.

The President urged his ministers to work diligently and with humility to meet the expectations of Ghanaians, focusing on resetting the nation. He also directed them to declare their assets and liabilities in compliance with Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution, with deadlines to be announced soon.

The newly sworn-in ministers include the Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson; the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor; the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine; the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza; the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku; and the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu.

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