Govt owed ECG GH¢2.6bn in 2016 – ECG confirms

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says the government of Ghana was indebted to the power distributor to a tune of 2.63 billion cedis as at the end of 2016.

This confirmation comes after fierce public debates on the government of Ghana’s debt to the ECG as at the end of the John Dramani Mahama led administration.

A statement released by the ECG giving insights and clarifying debt issues said, “we established that as at the end of 2016, the total GoG indebtedness to ECG netting off all government payments was 2.63 billion cedis.

The power distribution company noted that a “reconciliation exercise was undertaken by ECG with all its suppliers including VRA and The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) as well as the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for the end of the year 2019, where all forms of government debt” made up of MDA bills, consumption by Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Government subscribes and shortfall in Public Lighting for the period 2010-2019 was reconciled.”

The ECG indicated that between 2017 and 2019 the government of Ghana averagely paid 2 billion directly to ECG’s suppliers to defray government’s debt to ECG.

The total government of Ghana’s account as at the end of 2019 had been credited with 505.8 million cedis.

With a credit balance of 505.8 million cedis, the ECG says “it is enough to clear the first quarter of the government's 2020 bill which averaged 100 million cedis monthly.”

Below is the full release.