Payment of ECG legacy debt good news – IES

The Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security (IES), Paa Kawsi Anamua Sakyi, has said it is refreshing to note that the government has cleared the legacy debts of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Mr Sakyi however asked the government to ensure that the debt situation does not recur in the future.

Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu has announced that government had paid all debt owed the Electricity Company of Ghana up to December 2019, with a credit balance of GHS 500 million to cover bills up to April this year.

Speaking at a press briefing by the Information Ministry,on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, Mr. Peter Amewu said debts that had existed up until December 2019 have been fully paid.

“The NPP government on assumption of office ensured that it was current on all bills incurred during its tenure from 2017 to date. On the average, the government under His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has paid GHS 2 billion annually to cover its bills with the Electricity Company of Ghana. Today, at the end of 2019, all government bills with ECG had been paid and government had a credit balance of 500 million Ghana Cedis with ECG.

“With an average bill payment of about 100 million per month, the credit balance of over 500 is enough and more than enough to pay for government bills from January to April 2020,” he said.

Reacting to this development, Mr Sakyi said : “The temptation to go back to where they were, where government owed ECG is high. We think that ECG can now apply the prepaid system into government institutions, the municipal assemblies and all the ministries may need to be hooked on the prepaid system so as not to accumulate additional debt as we go forward.

“To hear that government has paid its debt to ECG, thereby fulfilling its own commitment that they failed to do over the years is refreshing news” he Accra-based Citi FM.