Ghana is set to save about $300 million in energy debt after successfully renegotiating payment terms with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), reducing the sector’s total debt stock from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion.
The development was disclosed by Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), who served on the committee that led the debt restructuring talks. He spoke to the media on the sidelines of the Future of Energy Conference.
Payment Plan and Concessions
According to Mr. Boakye, the agreement with the IPPs includes a new four-to-five-year payment plan aimed at gradually amortizing the outstanding energy debt while securing concessions from the producers.
“What we have done so far is to agree with a lot of the IPPs on a structure of payment, averagely four years to five years, to amortize the debt and also in return get some concession from them,” he explained.
He added that despite having binding contracts with government, the IPPs have shown good faith in the renegotiation process.
“We’re looking close to about $300 million on the debts and also over a billion dollars in future payments,” Mr. Boakye added.
Potential Gas-Power Exchange with Nigeria
Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, also revealed that Ghana is in talks with Nigeria over a new barter arrangement that would allow the country to exchange electricity exports for gas supplies.
“What Ghana does is that we take the gas from Nigeria, we generate power and re-export. We are in discussions with Nigeria to see if we can have a barter where we take their gas, convert it to power, and export the power to Nigeria in the spirit of West African cooperation,” he said.
Ghana’s energy debt has long strained relations between the government and IPPs, with some producers previously halting operations over delayed payments, but the new agreement is expected to help stabilize the sector and ease investor concerns.
){kind=link}