Business Times Africa Magazine 2017 /vol 9/ No2 BT2Edition2017_web | Page 45

TO STABILISE GHANA POWER, THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE: MONEY
Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG),
says it is reeling under GH¢1.6billion
of government debt alone,
The amount constitutes unpaid
bills by Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs), the Ghana Water
Company Limited (GWCL,) as well as
accumulated subsidies as at the first
quarter of this year, which, workers
say, continues to put a strain on its
operations.
Figures obtained from the ECG
indicate that as at March this year,
MDAs owed more than GH¢621
million while debt accrued by the
Ghana Water Company also stood at
GH¢324 million. In terms of subsidies,
government has an outstanding debt
of GH¢654 million to settle.
Workers of the troubled power
distributor, belonging to the Public
Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) of
the Trades Union Congress, argue
that the debt, among other things, is
preventing the ECG from rolling out
initiatives such as one-day service
connection as announced in 2014.
According to the General Secretary of
PUWU, Michael Adumata Nyantakyi,
several efforts to make the MMDAs
settle their bills have been frustrated,
sometimes by pressure from
politicians, such that the company
was forced to reconnect organisations
it had disconnected from the grid.
Also more than half of the total
number of banks are owed by energy
sector players from Volta River
Authority (VRA) through Ghana Grid
Company (GRIDCo) to ECG again,
which are crippling the banks with
almost a US$1billion debt.

The President, Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, delivering
his first State of the Nation Address
to Parliament, said: “efforts by the
previous government to resolve
the energy sector challenges have
come to naught. We have inherited a
gargantuan heavily indebted energy
sector, with the ne