Minister lauds VRA's contribution to energy sector

The Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, has commended the Volta River Authority (VRA) for its immense contributions to the country’s energy sector -- especially when the country was faced with difficulties in gas supply.

Describing the Authority as the ‘country’s cornerstone’, the Minister commended the VRA for its proactive decisions at the height of the power crisis.

“It is gratifying to note that even before government could think of an alternative fuel apart from gas, VRA had made an earlier move to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to fuel its equipment in order to curb the situation,” he stated in his remarks at the 4th Annual Stakeholders Meeting of the Authority in Accra on Wednesday.

He pledged the government’s continuous support to the company to enable it perform even better.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of VRA, Prof Akilakpa Sawyerr, in his opening statement touched on reasons for the 2012 Net Income Loss of GH¢90.2million compared to a Net Profit of GH¢82.6million in 2011 -- explaining that the reversal in profit was due to the doubling of unit cost of every kilowatt of electricity produced, as well as being compelled to use expensive light crude oil and occasionally diesel because of gas-unavailability at the time.

He was however quick to add that over the period under review (2012), government paid GH¢361million to VRA to make up for the acknowledged shortfall in tariff; saying it was effectively a subsidy to domestic power consumers in the country.

“Though revenue from sale of electricity rose from GH¢ 1,111million in 2011 to GH¢1,749million in 2012 -- an increase of 58% -- this was offset by an over-200% increase in the cost of crude oil required to run our plants,” Prof Sawyerr further emphasised.

The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Kweku Andoh Awotwi, for his part urged stakeholders to continue supporting the Authority as it is now well-placed to address any challenge that befalls it; adding that “the VRA you know today is better-placed to handle its affairs than the VRA we had some fifteen years ago”.

Mr Awotwi decried calls for separation of VRA from the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO), stating that it is important for the two institutions to work together to attract the necessary resources to minimise the inefficiencies and distribution loss in the sector than for them to operate separately.

The meeting saw representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, including Deputy Minister John Jinapor and some Directors at the Ministry; other representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning; External Auditors, KPMG, and other management members of VRA -- all making various contribution about their performances during the year under review.