President John Mahama stated on Tuesday that the government should be able to pay off its $2.5 billion debt to independent gas and power suppliers by the end of the year.
In an attempt to address its overall debt load, the government and independent power producers came to an agreement last year to restructure approximately $1 billion in legacy debt.
However, since President Mahama took office in January for a second term, service provider arrears have remained a problem for Ghana’s economy.
“I’m sure by next year, our partners would be happy because we would have dealt appropriately with the debt overhang,” “I’m sure by next year, our partners would be happy because we would have dealt appropriately with the debt overhang,” President Mahama told a forum in Ivory Coast.
According to him, the state-owned utility ECG was losing roughly 40% of its revenue due to inefficient revenue collection.
Mahama said he was involving the private sector in the billing process so that electricity could be paid for.
When asked if private investors were interested, President Mahama responded;
“People are queuing up, I said they should wait. We’re going to do expressions of interest.”
He added that there must be local involvement and that the cabinet will determine whether Ghana should have one or more partners working on the billing.
Prior to the global switch to renewable energy, President Mahama advised businesses to capitalize on the extraction of oil and gas.
“Oil is in transition and so everybody who has any assets should be pumping like there’s no tomorrow … I would lay a red carpet to anybody who wants to drill and pump oil to do so,” he stated.
By Najat Adamu
