The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on Thursday disconnected the power supply to the country’s parliament over a debt of 23 million Ghanaian cedi, approximately $1.8 million.
The power outage disrupted the parliament’s deliberation on the state of the nation speech delivered by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The blackout occurred when Abena Osei-Asare, the outgoing deputy minister for finance, was defending the president’s speech.
Videos showing the dark scene of the parliament in which some lawmakers were shouting “dumsor”, a Ghanaian word for “power outage”, have appeared on social media.
During the incident, some lawmakers and staff were stuck inside elevators.
ECG had earlier warned that it would disconnect the electricity supply to the parliament over the GH¢23 million debt.
Over the past few weeks, residents have been complaining about erratic power supply in the Gold Coast country.
Speaking about the incident, John Jinapor, a lawmaker and minority spokesperson on mines and energy, complained over the persistent load shedding being carried out by power companies.
The lawmaker attributed the power outages to the inability of the government to purchase fuel for the country’s thermal plants.
“Indeed, the load-shedding is getting worse by the day. The very day His Excellency the President was delivering the state of the nation address and boasting, up that very period, the utility companies were shedding the load,” the lawmaker said.
Later in the day, the power company restored the electricity supply to the parliament after a part of the debt was settled.
In Nigeria, the management of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) recently issued a 10-day notice to 86 government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to pay up the N47.1 billion electricity debt they owe or risk disconnection.
The presidential villa was listed among the debtors.