Government should re-negotiate discarded power agreements if need be - Mike Offei

Retired Economist, Michael Yaw Offei, is urging the government to re-negotiate discarded power contracts that it abrogated in the early days of the administration, if need be.

The call which was made in an exclusive interview at the Tema Premier Keep Fit Club recently, is in response to the current turmoil that unstable electricity is having on the economy.

“We seem to be back to ‘dumsor’ and as an economy that only recently emerged from the devastation of COVID-19, we just cannot afford to delay any action that hold any redemptive prospects for the economy,” Mr. Mike Offei said.

According to him, “if it seems to have become imperative that the government re-negotiate some of the power agreements that we abrogated in the early days of this administration, I will urge the government to go all out and do so because, electricity is the most important fuel to the economy.”

The retired economist is also a respected former diplomat who has both worked with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

His call is coming in the wake of a directive from the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish a power rationing timetable to enable people to plan their lives.

The directive had been given after the Select Committee on Mines and Energy had met with ECG over the current spate of dumsor.

It was from that conversation that it emerged that one of the underpinning issues of the current spell of dumsor is poor generation. Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea, Chairman of the Energy Committee of Parliament, highlighted that issue.

“The conversations we’ve had so far are very good, some of the technical challenges relating to fuel and the rest of it may be tackled. If there’s under generation, which there’s an admission there’s one, we should do everything in our power to make sure that we generate enough power.”

In the wake of revelation, Mr. Michael Yaw Offei is urging the government to re-consider the power generation contracts abrogated in the past in order to beef up generation capacity.

“In 2017, Government has cancelled 11 Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with a combined capacity of 2,808 megawatts of power at a cost of $402.39 million. If today we are having generation capacity deficits, I do not see why it should be difficult to return to these contracts when the wheels of the economy are beginning to stall because of dumsor.” Mr. Mike Offei said while beaming with smile.