Kumasi blackout “just a one-off incident” – Energy Ministry

The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has assured residents of Kumasi and its environs that the power outage experienced on Sunday evening was a minor technical fault that was swiftly resolved and does not signal a return to load shedding.

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (13 January), the Ministry’s Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Richmond Rockson, said the outage was caused by a system “trip” involving one of the power generation units upstream of the distribution network.

According to him, the incident occurred between 7:00pm and 8:00pm and was fully resolved by 8:29pm, restoring power to all affected areas in Greater Kumasi.

“Once you are using machines, some of these trips are expected. The most important thing is that there was a swift response. By 8:29pm, power had been restored to the entire Kumasi,” Mr Rockson said, apologising to consumers for the inconvenience.

He stressed that Ghana has not been shedding load since April 2025, noting that the government inherited an energy sector that was shedding over 700 megawatts of power daily at the end of 2024.

“To put 700 megawatts in perspective, that is almost three times the capacity of the Ameri power plant. Within four to five months, we turned that around to zero megawatts of load shedding, and we’ve sustained that,” he said.

Responding to public debate over the government’s announcement of a $1.47 billion payment towards energy sector debts, Rockson defended the move, describing it as a necessary intervention in a severely distressed sector.

He said the government inherited over $2 billion in arrears owed to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), unpaid fuel suppliers, mounting ECG debts, technical losses of about 40 percent, and the suspension of a $500 million World Bank Partial Risk Guarantee due to non-payment for gas.

“When we took office, we had virtually no liquid fuel for our thermal plants, IPPs were owed billions, ECG’s debt stood at over GH¢80 billion, and the World Bank guarantee had been drawn down,” he explained.

Rockson said the $500 million World Bank guarantee—now fully restored at a total cost of $597 million including interest—has been completely settled, while invoices owed to ENI and Vitol for gas supply have also been fully paid.

He added that government is now current with monthly payments to IPPs and has already paid $392 million towards legacy debts, a move he said has boosted investor confidence in Ghana’s power sector.

Addressing comparisons with payments made by the previous administration, Rockson argued that the recent Finance Ministry statement did not capture all energy-related expenditures, including payments to state institutions and fuel suppliers, which he said are ongoing and recurring obligations.

“What matters is commitment and consistency. Power generation will always come with invoices. The question is whether government is committed to settling them—and this government is doing exactly that,” he said.

He also pointed to improved revenue collection by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), noting a 90 percent increase in collections following reforms to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, which he said had previously been mismanaged.

“As of the third quarter of 2025, nearly GHC13 billion had been paid through the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, compared to about GH¢6 billion in the whole of 2024,” he noted.

Rockson maintained that the government’s actions demonstrate fiscal discipline and a clear plan to stabilise the energy sector, insisting that the Kumasi outage was a one-off technical incident and not a systemic failure.

“There is no cause for panic. Power remains stable, and the progress we’ve made will continue,” he assured.