Ghana is still facing challenges in paying its debt to power producers in the country.
According to Ghana’s Minister of Finance Mohammed Amin Adam, Ghana currently owes its power producers an estimated $1 billion, most of which has agreed to be restructured.
However, the head of an energy lobby group says the debt was around $2.2 billion.
What They’re Saying
“We don’t simply count our monthly invoices and deduct what payments have been made,” said Elikplim Apetorgbor, chief executive officer of the Independent Power Generators, Ghana.
He said that any debt deal must include interest on delayed payments, exchange rate losses, and idle capacity charges, among other things.
Zoom In
The government said it has agreements with five out of seven independent power producers, leaving deals with Chinese-owned Sunon Asogli Power Ghana Ltd. and a unit of Istanbul-based Karpowership outstanding. The bill due to Sunon-Asogli alone is now more than $800 million, Apetorgbor said.
Pushback
Adam, during a July 1 press conference to discuss the country’s agreement with official creditors and eurobond holders, said Apetorgbor was not speaking for the industry.
“The CEO may be doing his own thing,” he said. “We have seven IPPs and we’ve reached agreement with five of them. That is very positive for our country. It tells us that the threat of shutting down power plants will be a thing of the past.”
Zoom Out
Ghana installed capacity of 5,639 megawatts at the end of 2023, but it’s struggling to generate enough to meet peak demand of 3,618 megawatts.
More than half of small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed in May by the Accra-based Institute of Economic Affairs said the effect of the blackouts on their businesses was severe.
Ghana’s debt crisis makes it hard for the government to pay power suppliers when state-owned energy distributor Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd. can’t foot its monthly bills, said Kodzo Yaotse at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy.
Source: Bloomberg
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