Ghana’s energy sector debt has surged to a staggering $3 billion(approximately (GHS 45 billion) as of December 2024, according to Energy Minister Designate Hon. John Abdulai Jinapor.
This revelation came during his vetting process at the Appointments Committee in Parliament.
Interestingly, Jinapor noted that when the previous National Democratic Congress administration left office in 2016, the energy sector debt stood at approximately $2 billion.
This means that the immediate past administration has accumulated an additional $1 billion in debt.
“When we were leaving office, the debt stock consolidated was close to 2 billion. Fortunately, I have a document summary of energy sector debts and lenders through August 31, 2017, the ESLA PLC got a full audit of the entire energy sector debts.
“I refer to page 17 of the document. The total energy sector liability at the time was GH₵9.4 billion, they themselves use an exchange rate of 4.4, if you use this exchange rate of 4.4, the debt had then moved to $2.1 billion. So let me put on record that as at this time when the debt was validated, the debt was $ 2.1 billion,” Mr Jinapor stated.
Mr Jinapor, who chaired the energy subcommittee of the transition team, revealed that as of September 30, 2024, the debt had risen to $2.5 billion, adding that a subsequent reconciliation meeting with the Ministry of Energy, the Energy Commission, and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) confirmed that the debt had further escalated to $3 billion.
“As we speak today, the reconciled figure from official sources is $3 billion,” he stated.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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