The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, says ongoing reforms in Ghana’s energy sector have resulted in the clearance of about $1.47 billion in legacy debt and generated significant savings for the country.
According to him, the government has also saved approximately $500 million by shifting power generation from expensive liquid fuels to natural gas.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, August 20, he noted that reforms to the cash waterfall mechanism have significantly improved payments to Independent Power Producers, while renegotiations with IPPs have saved an additional $250 million dollars.
“Before we came to office, just about 6 billion was declared monthly into the Cash Waterfall. IPPs were receiving just about 42%. Because of the work we did together and the policy reforms that we implemented, today we declare close to about 15 billion every month into the Cash Waterfall mechanism and almost all the IPPs receive about 100% of the invoice bills. So we are not billing arrears like it used to be.
“When we assumed office, the outstanding bill was about GH¢80 billion. We have also negotiated with the IPPs, and we have saved about $250 million again from them. So clearly we are making significant progress,” he said.
He said the reforms form part of broader efforts to stabilise the energy sector, improve financial sustainability and reduce the cost of power generation
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