Ghana’s Parliament Hopes Light Stays On After Brief Power Cut Over Unpaid Bills

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ACCRA (Worthy News) – Ghana’s legislators were hoping the lights would stay on Friday after the state-run Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) briefly cut power supplies to the parliament over a debt of 23 million Ghanaian cedi ($1.8 million).

Video footage showed parliamentarians exclaiming in the dark chamber after the power was shut off, eventually joining in a chant of “dumsor, dumsor” or “black-out” in the local Twi language.

Legislators and parliamentary staff got stuck in the elevator when the abrupt blackout hit, Ghana’s TV3 channel reported.

ECG said it cut power after the legislature failed to “honor demand notices to pay up.”

Soon after, “they paid 13 million cedi ($1 million) and promised to pay the rest in a week, so our guys reconnected them”, added company spokesman William Boateng.

“Disconnections are for everybody; anyone who doesn’t pay and fails to make arrangements, the team will disconnect,” he warned.

Parliamentary finance official Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror denied that parliament owed the amount quoted by the power company.

He said that the company’s system failed to record recent payments made by parliament and insisted that the outstanding power bill was about $950,000. The tensions come amid a broader standoff between power producers and Ghana’s government

Power shortages have worsened in the West African nation of some 34 million people, which grapples with its most severe economic crisis in a decade.

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