With an end in sight to the almost three years agonizing and debilitating power crisis and a welcome good news to many Ghanaians and business owners, information available to The aL-hAJJ reveals the opposite for the Bulk Oil Distributors and Fuel Dealers who have since been moaning due to sharp slump in sales.
The Bulk Oil Distributors and Fuel Dealers are said to be unhappy with the relative stability at the power sector following the drastic reduction in consumption of fuel by companies and households who hitherto rely heavily on fuel to power their generators, and which have also severely affect sales and turnover.
This paper has gathered that companies and households which use to spend huge sums of money on fuel to power their generators have in the last three weeks ceased to buy the commodity due to the interrupted power supply to their homes and work places.
This, according to some BDCs, have impacted negatively on their business, with one of the owners of the BDCs (name withheld) saying “if the stability at the power sector continues like this very soon some of us will be out of business.”
A source close to the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil distributors told The aL-hAJJ “many companies and some prominent individuals we use to supply diesel and petrol to have for some time now not contacted us. We have fuel locked up at our depots.”
The source added that “the fuel stations are now our only source of income…even with the fuel stations we don’t get much orders from them as we use to supply them because their sales has drastically dropped.”
The almost three year power crisis, popularly known in local parlance as dumsor, has over the last three weeks seen phenomenal improvement, with homes and companies experiencing minimal or 24hour uninterrupted power supply. The improvement has been attributed to completed repair works on various thermal plants, improvement in gas supplies, completion of some thermal projects and the recently acquired power barges from Turkey and Dubai.
This is said to be affecting the incomes of the BDCs and fuel dealers who are said to be devising ways to stay in business.
Only last week, Daily Guide reported the Chief Executive of Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributing Companies, Senyo Hosi expressing dissatisfaction with what the chamber described as the unfair participation of government in the downstream of the oil sector.
He said BDCs would fight to ensure fairness and stay in business as well, stating “we are fighting and we will keep fighting for fairness. It will be a shame if BDCs are crashing under a given government.
“First of all BDCs are a construct of government policy so they should thrive. It behooves every government to ensure that BDCs thrive and go beyond the borders of the country. A lot of companies are growing and crossing borders into Ghana but how many companies is government helping to grow beyond the borders of Ghana. BDCs should be well nurtured for it to grow beyond the borders.”
Meanwhile, Ghanaians are applauding the John Dramani Mahama-led government’s investment in the power sector which has led to stable power supply in recent times.
Some Ghanaians are also praising government for taking steps to stop the use of generators, bearing in mind the environmental pollution, noise and other dangers associated with it, “for some time now noise levels and fumes from generators has become a thing of the past,” a young Ghanaian student at Nima noted.
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