By Eugene Davis
Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has disclosed that the government is renegotiating power deals with Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
He made this known when he appeared before Parliament to answer questions related to ECG’s debt and other issues in his sector, he said “We are going to renegotiate with the IPPs again because we believe that they have made a lot from the state and this is the time for the IPPs to also show some commitment, so we can sustain this sector.”
The Minister also revealed that ECG’s total indebtedness as at the end of March 2025 is GHS 67 billion, stressing thatplans to resolve the debt challenge include the following:
Increased Revenue and Reduction of Losses
The performance of District Managers and General Managers for the various ECG operational regions is being monitored through signed Performance Contracts in April 2025.
The Minister noted that when the NDC government left office in 2016 the losses were around 22percent, and on assumption of office it has hit almost 40percent, but added that it is now reducing.
This together with the regional/district boundary metering project is expected to lead to increased revenue collection and reduction in system losses. Increased collection rate will result in higher allocation to ECG under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism CWM which can be channeled to reducing ECG’s indebtedness.
Renegotiation of the Debt with IPPs
ECG is working with both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition and the IPPs to conclude negotiations on debt restructuring with the IPPs and a reduction of the debt.
Private Sector Participation
The reintroduction of Private Sector Participation in the electricity distribution sub-sector is expected among others to leverage private sector expertise and capital to improve revenue collection, reduce technical losses and engender improved service quality.
Ghana owes a considerable amount of money to ECG, the state-owned electricity utility, and to IPPs, who generate a significant portion of the country’s electricity.
The country should be able to reduce its debt of $2.5 billion owed to independent power producers and gas suppliers by the end of the year, the President of Ghana had said.
Last year, the country reached an agreement with independent power producers to
restructure legacy debt of around $1 billion as part of efforts to deal with its overall debt burden.
