The Chamber of Independent Power Producers, Distributors and Bulk Consumers has written off $600 million dollars debt owed it by Ghana’s government, chalking it off as set-offs, debt forgiveness and cancellations. This was revealed after a parliamentary session to find out how much power producers had been paid by Ghana’s government, with the IPP’s cancelling debt arrears-
According to a statement by Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor, Chief Executive of the Chamber, the settlements announced by the Deputy Minister of Energy William Owuraku Aidoo came as a result of debt forgiveness and cancellations via accounting set off, totalling $600 million debt.“These settlements did not come only as financial payments,” he said.
The minister had earlier stated that the government paid the IPPs 342 million cedis (47 million US dollars) in 2016, 1.07 billion cedis (234 million dollars) in 2017 and 1.97 billion cedis (288 million dollars in 2018). The payment also includes 2.75 billion cedis in 2019, 4.32 billion cedis in 2018 and 1.61 billion cedis in the first two quarters of 2021.
Earlier this year, the government of Ghana received $27 million dollars from the African Development Bank to develop renewable energy projects in the country. The Ghana Mini-Grid and Solar Photovoltaic Net Metering Project involves the development of 35 mini-grids, solar photovoltaic systems in four hundred schools, two hundred healthcare centres and hundred community energy services centres in the Volta Lake region. When completed, it is expected to have an annual capacity of one hundred and ten megawatts. These include 12,000 units of roof-mounted net-metered solar photovoltaic systems for public institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises and selected households.
AfDB’s Director-General for West Africa Marie-Laure Akin Olugbade who declared the bank’s alignment with Ghana’s development priorities in the area of renewable energy resources lauded Ghana’s energy initiatives, especially in the COVID19 era shows the importance of reliable energy services,
The grant according to the AfDB Country Manager, Eyerusalem Fasika, will go a long way in helping Ghana realise its goal of providing infrastructure for Ghanaians to create prosperity.
It is expected that the $600million debt offset by IPPs will go towards the development of other infrastructure in Ghana.
