The 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.<\/p>\n
According to him, the perception that citizens are desperate for power and will thus pay any amount for the constant supply of the commodity is untrue.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”RT1epRN50VctGjz0xhoB2k6Sj6KZLKeO”]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 will take a while to materialize.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want to make a statement that maybe somebody will take it in a different respect and think that this guy is sounding arrogant and this guy is this. Don’t make that statement that people are willing to pay at all cost. No, people are not willing to pay high cost of electricity at all cost. Do you know why? Because if he was willing to pay at all cost, the current cost of having electricity is to have a private generator and that is a very high cost,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ayariga continued saying, “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\u2026and that is what we are trying to do and it will take time,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n
I was forced to use a generator<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bawku Central Member of Parliament on Citi FM\u2019s<\/strong> news analysis programme, The Big Issue<\/strong><\/em> revealed that he has never used a generator set until recently when the Sports Ministry forced him to do so.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ghana has been battling with severe energy challenges for about three years now.<\/p>\n The situation has intensified as citizens now enjoy 24 hours without light and 12 hours of electricity supply.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n This has affected many businesses and has resulted in low productivity and the loss of thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n Many however complain that government is failing to urgently address the problem because government officials \u00a0have generator sets in their homes and offices.<\/p>\n But Ayariga insisted that that public perception is untrue because he knows how it \u201cfeels and in all the places I have lived, I have never used generators.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, it is until recently that he started using a generator set in his home.<\/p>\n He explained saying, \u201cthe official bungalow I was given, there was actually a generator there but I think it broke down and frankly speaking, because I don\u2019t use a generator, I never fixed it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026if 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\u2019t 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The former Sports Minister stressed that every member of government \u201cregrets the situation\u201d because \u201cwe all know how many businesses cannot function effectively because they have to resort to other energy sources which are more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Click to listen to Mahama Ayariga \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n