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In a study released recently, The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has revealed the high cost of DUMSOR to the economy. The study, “How did the 2012-2015 power crises affect small and medium manufacturing firms in Ghana” revealed that 885 manufacturing firms in Ghana lost GHC250million “due to the non-availability of power.”
The Director of ISSER, Dr. Charles Ackah revealed that “due to the non availability of power, the firms were losing about 12 per cent of their output on a monthly basis; there were 10 days in every month that the firms were without power and so for those 10 days, they (firms) were losing roughly 12 percent of productivity.” The manufacturing firms mentioned include clothing, textile, beverages, wood processing amongst many others. These firms employed a minimum of 20 people each. This means that almost 5,000 workers were left unemployed during the said period.
The ISSER report also revealed that 285 firms closed down, while researchers could not locate 230 firms, meaning that they were out of business due to the problems associated with energy crisis. “The energy crisis had significant negative effect on labour productivity…The power crisis led to a 10 percent fall in monthly productivity of these manufacturing firms” , the Director noted.
It will be recalled that at the height of the energy crisis often referred to as DUMSOR, some NDC politicians said those Ghanaians who could not cope with the crisis could relocate, making a mockery of this serious national crisis.
