Karpower renegotiation agreement led to the drop in electricity tariffs- Energy Ministry

During the Mahama administration, the government went into an agreement with a Turkish power supply company Karpower that will provide Ghana with 225 megawatts of power for a period of ten years.

The deal was criticised by the then opposition party the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with the then running mate of the President Akufo Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia stating that the agrement does not make any sense because deal will cost the country value for money.

However, the deal has been extended from 10 years to a 20 years agreement with the Energy Ministry saying that the Karpower deal led to the recent drop in electricity tariff announced by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).

The communications consultant to the ministry, Nana Damoah has said that the initial arrangement the Mahama government did with Karpower was detrimental to the country financially.

He said, “I mentioned that we had renegotiated some deals to ensure they are very good and Karpower is not an exception. It’s either we accepted the high tariffs and moved on or we would have to deal with it. We would be able to save $54M annually for the people of this country. I think people should think about this in their own perspective and not in the eyes of the NDC. Think about how this affects the tariff we pay. We believe that this arrangement directly affects the tariff you pay and that is why the tariff has gone down”.

Currently, the Karpower Company is in negotiation terms with the government and an agreement is yet to be reached.

Information available indicates that African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), recently called on government to renegotiate the deal.

John Jinapor who was the former Deputy Minister while speaking to the Press has said that, Hon. Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko, who is the current Minister for Energy will be made to explain the reasons for the current decision.

Mr Jinapor who also happens to be a member of the Energy committee of Parliament while speaking on Starr FM said, “I’m surprised that this government can make such a U-turn after criticizing the Karpower deal, after lambasting it they have not admitted that we need the Karpower deal but gone ahead to extend it by those number of years”.

“It is most unfortunate [and] it tells you that they were not sincere, they were not honest and were not engaged in nothing but partisan politics.” he added.