Energy sector debts cannot be attributed to Mahama only – Jinapor insists

A former deputy Minister of Energy, John Jinapor, has debunked claims that the Mahama administration is the cause of the high energy sector debts.

The issue of high-power purchasing agreements and the high cost of running Ghana’s energy sector became rife after the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Frank Pierre Laporte intimated that the sector was largely contributing to the country’s high debt stock.

However, the Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament said the NDC is to blame for the current state of the country’s energy sector.

According to him, the former President, John Mahama, signed 43 take-or-pay power purchase agreements which led to the payment of over $320 million in 2018 by the current administration.

But John Jinapor said those claims are false while adding that the Akufo-Addo administration must also take some of the blame for the decisions made.

“ECG losses alone have increased from 23 percent to 31 percent so when the Minister of Finance pays for those losses, it is not excess capacity. It is the power delivered. There is a power reserve margin of 20 percent and it is statutory and this government came and decided that it shouldn’t be part of the tariff structure and it is a political decision,” he was quoted by citinewsroom.com.

Instead, John Jinapor said other factors including exchange rate losses and politics are among the reasons for the expensive nature of the country’s power sector.

He said: “The problem is a result of forex losses, exchange rate differentials, and the unnecessary political interference which is leading to this payment and it cannot be attributed to former president Mahama. Immediately these PPAs expire, they quickly renew them and not from the five years that we did but for fifteen years. We will not allow these double standards to go because the facts speak for themselves.”

“Some of the agreements he has said were not signed by Mahama, so he has to give further information on the 43. This is a simple analogy. You said the man signed 43 agreements, provide the 43,” he demanded of Atta Akyea.

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