All govt arrears of electricity bills for 2019 cleared – Energy Minister

Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu has disclosed government has paid all its outstanding debt owed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for the year 2019.

According to him, an amount of GH¢2 billion has been paid annually to the power distribution company towards covering the debt.

Speaking at the Minister’s press briefing on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, the Energy Minister explained government currently has a credit balance of GH¢500 million to pay for electricity bills for January to April 2020.

"Today at the end of 2019, all government bills with the ECG has been paid with a credit balance of GH¢500 million with ECG. With an average bill payment of about GH¢100 million, the credit balance of about GH¢500 million is enough and more than enough to pay for governments bills from January to April 2020,” Peter Amewu stated.

“It is also interesting to note that an unreconciled additional payment of GH¢4.14 billion has also been made to various small suppliers of power producers which is yet to be credited government under the ongoing Power Reconciliation Exercise,” he added.

The Minister adds, should the Power Reconciliation Exercise be completed, government will be in a conformable position to inform viable consumers of electricity that the energy sector is gradually moving out of debt.

The Energy Minister, however, argued that since the Akufo-Addo led administration's assumption of office in 2017, the energy sector was confronted with a huge indebtedness of GH¢2.63 billion owed to the ECG under by the former president John Dramani Mahama when he left office in 2016.