The government has declared its unflinching support to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to meet its financial obligations to power generators, including independent power producers (IPPs) for sustainable power supply in the country.
A Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krapah, who gave the assurance in an interview with journalists on the margins of the launch of the 10th anniversary of the Electrical Wiring Programme (EWP) by the Energy Commission in Accra yesterday, said the current focus was to support the company to retrieve its tariff arrears of over GH¢5.7 billion owed by power consumers.
“The first step is to help ECG recoup what is out there.
That is one of the ways to help the company defray some of the debts and make it sustainable.
We have a mechanism to ensure that what is received is distributed fairly and equitable to all the players including the private entities,” he stated.
Full backing
Mr Krapa said the current revenue mobilisation drive by ECG was a step in the right direction as it would make the public utility company more resourceful to enable it to meet its commitments.
“The revenue mobilisation drive by ECG has the full support of the government.
Before ECG rolled out the programme, the minister of energy, his deputies and the leadership of the Ministry met with ECG and finalised the modalities for implementation.
The ECG has the fullest backing of the government,” he added.
He said it was important that ECG sustained the revenue mobilisation drive, adding that “this must not be a nine-day wonder.”
Debts
ECG, the main power distributor in the country, is saddled with huge debts owed to power generators including the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Bui Power Authority (BPA) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
It owes nine IPPs, which controls about 50 per cent of the country’s electricity generation mix, about $1.4 billion as of February this year.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Independent Power Generators, Ghana (IPGG), Dr Elikplim Apetorgbor, told the Daily Graphic in March this year that the debt had virtually crippled the operations of the nine IPPs.
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