It’s ironic World Bank Director forgot how this started – Tsikata on energy sector controversy

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata has stated that the World Bank cannot recuse itself from the problems Ghana faces in its energy sector.

According to him, the institution hit against some decisions that could have been of massive help to Ghana’s energy sector, some of which have led to a host of challenges currently.

He, therefore, wants the World Bank to help find solutions to those problems it helped the country create instead of pointing accusing fingers.

The World Bank’s Country Director for Ghana, Pierre Laporte, in an earlier engagement blamed the country’s energy sector for contributing largely to the country’s high debt levels.

He said, “The fact is, in the last few years, Ghana entered into some PPAs that were wrong. These types, in our view, were at the wrong rate and at the wrong prices and today you’re paying duly for it. And today the country is being billed for many of these wrong PPAs.”

But Tsatsu Tsikata disagrees.

“When I look back at this whole gas and power sectors in which this issue is arising, the World Bank has made some serious mistakes in relation to understanding our national energy situation.

“In the 80s and early 90s when GNPC, as a result of this gas mandate, was insisting that based on all the evidence available gas was an important source to complement and supplement the power from hydro sources at that time, the view of the World Bank was against having additional capacity from gas sources,” he was quoted by 3news.com.

“The reason I am raising this is because fuel costs are a major part of the problem that we have about the power sector and some of those fuel costs have to do with even going back to the use of light crude oil.

“The World Bank owes it to us to be part of the solutions since it was part of the problem. It’s ironic that the World Bank Country director isn’t tracing back to how this started,” he stressed.

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SSD/WA