President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the Mahama-led administration left behind a heavily indebted energy sector which needs fixing.
“The attempts by the previous government to resolve the dumsor crisis have led to a gargantuan debt overhang in the sector,” Nana Akufo-Addo told parliament on Tuesday, 21 February, 2017 in his maiden State of the Nation Address.
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“We have inherited a heavily indebted energy sector, with the net debt reaching $2.4 billion as of December 2016.”
He explained that:“I have to point out the alarming fact that $800 million of this debt is owed to local banks, which threatens their stability.”
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"Huge indebtedness of the energy sector constitutes the single major hurdle to Ghanaians enjoying reliable and affordable electricity supply”
“The cost of energy destroys businesses large and small. It destroys jobs. It compounds poverty. The current state of the energy situation in our country is unsatisfactory,” he said.
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He added that his government has begun “to develop a national electricity master plan, which will also explore the benefits of listing VRA and GRIDCO on the Stock Exchange,” as part of fixing the problem.
'My government will enforce the procurement law. We will insist on open and competitive bidding for power capacity procurement.”