Otumfuor mediates in Ghana Nigeria Gas debt issue

The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has taken part in discussions between Ghana and Nigerian officials over debts owed the latter for Gas supply.

The meeting took place days ago, Kasapafmonline.com can confirm, and the reason both parties have agreed to extend the deadline for payment to February.

The Asantehene’s clout and relevance was heavily relied upon by President John Dramanni Mahama (who was also part of the deliberations) to chart a definite roadmap that would lead to the debts being paid eventually.

Ghana owes Nigeria some 181 million dollars in unpaid bills for Gas supply to the Volta River Authority.

Officials of the supplying company, N-Gaz, said attempts to get the Ghanaian government to offset its debts failed, insisting the decision to cut off supply was taken as a debt recovery effort.

N-Gaz is a joint venture company owned by NNPC, Shell and Chevron, and delivers gas through the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) to Ghana.

Both agreed after the meeting that the total sum of gas supply debt will be cleared by February 2016 at the latest.

The agreement also stipulated that VRA will pay the balance of August and September invoices by October 31 at the latest.

It was also agreed that all other supplies as from October will be paid for on or before the due date while the backlog of arrears from 2012 will be defrayed by February 2016.

Ghana stopped paying for the fuel from Nigeria in August of 2014, saying it sent a letter to the Volta River Authority informing them of their next move.

Ghana received as much as 90 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from Nigeria in the past month.

While the demand for power grows, very little has been done in terms of workable energy solutions, save for promises of seeking help from domestic and foreign energy suppliers. One of such is the planned arrival of power barges from Turkey, early next month.