<<Print>>

The Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Richard Quarshigah has blamed the worsening energy situation in the country on the increasing use of mobile phones by Ghanaians. Speaking on the Point Blank segment on Eyewitness News, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta explained that high rate of mobile phone usage in Ghana could be contributing worsening energy crises. Ghana is currently under-going a load-shedding exercise due to inconsistent gas supply from Nigeria, the shutdown of Bui Dam plant, and a drop in the generation capacity of the Aboadze gas plant. The erratic power supply is affecting the ailing manufacturing sector and increasing the cost of doing business in Ghana. Sharing his thoughts on the matter, Mr. Quarshigah questioned whether Ghanaians have considered the possible causes of the challenges the country is saddled with. He recalled that a few years ago, most Ghanaians were not using mobile phones �but mobile phones cannot be used if they are not charged. And what do we use in charging them? Electricity.� This phenomenon according to him requires �more energy, more power.� The Keta Legislator pointed out that a lot of communities across the country have been connected to the national grid and a lot more people are using mobile phone �and all these are feeding into the same megawatts that we have�the number of mobile phones outstrips the number of people we have in this country.� He further cited increasing population as another cause for the energy crisis adding that power generation plants like the Bui Dam and the T3 thermal plant are not working at their full capacity to supply adequate power.