The Government is currently paying more than $140 million every month for power produced by independent power producers whether the power is used or not.
That’s according to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, who was speaking at a recent Monetary Policy Committee press briefing in Accra.
He said the amount is a drain on the country’s reserves and is a major contributory factor to the local currency’s depreciation against other major currencies.
“We are paying almost $140 million a month for these energy-related arrangements and this constitutes a major source of outflow on our cash flow with an impact in terms of the level of reserves. You can see that we lost almost $600 million in the last few months so these are some pressures that we are managing almost on a day-to-day basis.”
The government remains committed to independent power producers saying it will help to make them more efficient.
The Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, assured independent power producers last September that the government would provide a reliable and affordable natural gas supply for generation of electricity.
He said the government was aware of the regular gas interruption from Nigeria, which affects IPPs’ daily power generation, saying ’’ Government has therefore decided to make gas available as one of the cheapest sources of fuel for power generation.”
