The government has acquired 2,500 transformers for installation across the country in the first phase of a major programme to replace ageing power infrastructure and deliver stable electricity to Ghanaian communities.
President John Dramani Mahama made the announcement on Sunday when he visited the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) yard in Tamale to inspect the transformers.
He said the deployment is a direct response to years of neglect that had left communities across the country served by outdated equipment unable to meet growing demand.
The President said the initiative followed a request by the Energy Minister that was approved by cabinet, with the Finance Minister stepping in to provide the necessary support to make the acquisition possible.
“For many years, ECG and NEDCO have not done a mass replacement of transformers to upgrade the power of the transformers to be able to meet the growing demand in the communities,” Mahama said.
He used the example of a transformer in Nungua that had been in service for 22 years, installed at a time when the surrounding community was far smaller than it is today.
With Ghana’s population growing from around 18 to 19 million in the 1980s when the national electrification programme began, to 33 million today, communities have expanded well beyond the capacity of the infrastructure originally put in place to serve them.
The 2,500 transformers represent the first phase of what the President described as an ongoing effort to systematically take out old transformers and replace them until stable power is achieved across the country.
“After that, we will constantly keep taking out the old transformers so that Ghana can have stable power,” he said.
The President also expressed satisfaction that many of the transformers being deployed were locally manufactured in Ghana, saying the use of locally made equipment multiplied the economic benefits of the programme for the country. He said he looked forward to a future where all transformers used in Ghana would be produced domestically.
Beyond the transformer rollout, Mahama said improving customer care was the next step after power is stabilised. He called for the establishment of proper call centres staffed by young Ghanaians to improve fault response times, saying a system must be put in place where customer calls are answered promptly and teams dispatched immediately to address reported faults.
