We’ve cancelled 20 Mahama power purchase deals – Bawumia

Government has abrogated about 20 power purchase agreements signed by the Mahama government, vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed.

This, according to him, saved the country a whopping $300 million.

Speaking Monday at a Joy FM town hall meeting, Bawumia said the government has however asked “four of them to go ahead and the rest to delay by two or three years and by so doing, we have managed to reduce government’s liability.”

Government, he added, also secured financing for two major electrification project and when implemented, would extend electricity to over 800 communities.

He noted independent power producers in the country have been informed that they cannot charge Ghanaians more than 10 cent per kilowatt hour. “They are charging us 17 cent and in other countries they are 10 cent.”

Delivering his maiden State of the Nation Address in February, President Akufo-Addo disclosed that the country’s energy sector was saddled with huge debt and that threatens reliable power supply if immediate measures were not taken.

According to him, attempts by the the Mahama administration to solve the energy crisis that bedeviled the country led to a debt of over 2 billion dollars.

“The attempts by the previous government to resolve the dumsor crisis have led to a gargantuan debt overhang in the sector…we have inherited a heavily indebted energy sector, with the net debt reaching 2.4 billion US dollars as at December 2016.

“I have to point out the alarming fact that 800 million US dollars of this debt is owed to local banks, which threatens their stability. Huge indebtedness of the energy sector constitutes the single major hurdle to Ghanaians enjoying reliable and affordable electricity supply,” said Akufo-Addo.