Dzodze, Volta Region – May 21, 2026 — The Executive President of the Duamenefa Foundation, Mr. Emmanuel Ketaman Evortepe, speaking on behalf of the Board of Governors and Management of the Foundation, wishes to express our heartfelt displeasure regarding the persistent, erratic, and largely unannounced power outages currently affecting many communities across our operational areas and beyond.
Electricity remains one of the most fundamental pillars of every modern economy. It is the backbone of business activities, healthcare delivery, water supply systems, communication, education, refrigeration, industrial production, and social life. When electricity becomes unstable, the entire economic and social structure suffer.
While we sincerely appreciate the efforts being made by the current government under the National Democratic Congress (NDC), particularly the ambitious “Big Push” infrastructure initiative aimed at transforming roads and national development, we believe stable electricity supply must equally become a major backbone of that vision.
The current situation is having devastating effects on ordinary citizens and businesses. Many households are reporting blown electrical appliances due to sudden outages and unstable power restoration. Food stored in refrigerators and cold rooms continues to spoil, severely affecting traders and families. Cooling businesses and frozen food operators are lamenting major financial losses due to deteriorating products in their storage facilities. In many communities, boreholes cannot function because their pumping systems depend entirely on electricity, thereby affecting access to water for numerous households.
Ironically, during the 2024 election period, former Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia was widely quoted as saying:
“A vote for Mahama is a vote for dumsor.”
At the time, many citizens dismissed the statement as political rhetoric. However, the present power situation has unfortunately revived public debate around those remarks. Many citizens openly acknowledge that despite various criticisms directed at the previous administration, the scale and frequency of the current outages were not experienced in this manner during that particular period.
The Foundation wishes to emphasize that this growing electricity crisis is gradually affecting public confidence and damaging the image and popularity of the NDC within many communities across our regions.
Accordingly, the Duamenefa Foundation respectfully recommends the following measures:
- Electricity stability must become a central pillar of the “Big Push” development agenda alongside roads and infrastructure.
- The right professionals must be placed in the right positions within ECG, GRIDCo, and related institutions.
- Maintenance schedules and operational interruptions should be transparent, properly communicated, and professionally planned.
- Government should strengthen supervision and accountability mechanisms within the electricity sector.
- If acts of sabotage, negligence, or internal misconduct exist within the system, responsible individuals should be investigated and held accountable in accordance with the law.
- Ghana’s electricity distribution system should be comprehensively modernized and reinforced with strong regional technical directorates and inspection units.
- An independent scrutiny and monitoring agency should be established to evaluate the performance and operational conduct of ECG and GRIDCo.
- Such an agency should continuously gather field data concerning customer experiences, complaints, service reliability, and the actual impact of outages on businesses and households.
The Duamenefa Foundation remains committed to constructive national dialogue and believes Ghana possesses the expertise, institutional experience, and human resources necessary to overcome the current challenges in the electricity sector for the benefit of all citizens.
Signed,
Emmanuel Ketaman Evortepe
Executive President
Duamenefa Foundation