The government is set to save about US$300 million following successful renegotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which have reduced the sector’s outstanding debt from US$1.5 billion to US$1.2 billion.
The disclosure was made by Ben Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), who serves on the committee that led the restructuring talks.
He explained that the process was carefully designed to ease the financial burden on the government while safeguarding investor confidence in the power sector.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Future of Energy Conference hosted by ACEP, Mr. Boakye commended the cooperation of the IPPs.
“The IPPs have been very magnanimous, even though we have a binding contract and agreements with them. They have been magnanimous enough to give us a haircut, which I am sure the minister will announce at some point.
“We are just here to help to make the power sector sustainable. We are looking close to about US$300 million on the debt and also over a billion in future payments,” he said.
The long-standing debt burden has in recent years strained relations between government and IPPs, with some producers shutting down operations due to non-payment.
These disruptions occasionally affected power supply and raised concerns about the country’s energy security.
