The Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye, has expressed concern about governance and safety standards in Ghana’s power sector, saying weak accountability has led to repeated infrastructure failures and system weaknesses.
Speaking in an interview on Saturday, May 2, he pointed to the recent fire at the Ghana Grid Company Limited substation near Akosombo, arguing that it could have been avoided with proper planning and modern safety measures in place.
He also questioned broader practices within the energy sector, saying poor accountability results in inefficiencies and avoidable financial losses.
“We need to really look at how people get negligent. Accountability is defective in the energy sector. Basic things don’t get done, and when they don’t, they cost us billions of dollars,” he said.
Mr Boakye further referenced ongoing power issues, including low voltage problems in Kumasi, saying earlier warnings about weaknesses in the system were not properly addressed.
His comments follow recent blackouts in parts of the country, with some areas also reporting intermittent outages.
ECG leadership and the President have attributed these disruptions to ongoing system upgrades aimed at improving long-term power stability.
He added that concerns had been raised years earlier about decisions affecting the grid, warning that they could have long-term consequences.
“We tried to pre-empt that situation three, four years back, when we sat and we told GRIDCo engineers that you are stumping political decisions that will come back to hurt the entire power system in the long to medium term.”
