The Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor has announced a decision to slash the Ghc 500 million budgetary allocation for the Electricity Company of Ghana to Ghc250 million over the missing containers saga which has plagued the entity.
The decision is to enable the government free up liquidity to offset the financial obligations the company owes power producers.
Mr Jinapor revealed that the company was allocated an amount of Ghc935 million for procurement in 2023, however the amount was exceeded by management by a staggering Ghc7.3 billion , due to excess acquisition of cables.
The financial burden occasioned by the purchases has led to huge revenue shortfalls, leading to huge bills being accrued at the port largely due to unpaid clearance fees.
That unfortunate situation according to the Minister, has led to the issue of a huge number of containers belonging to ECG getting missing at the port.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, John Abdulai Jinapor reiterated the point that government has taken a serious view of the situation and is taking all necessary steps to bring all culprits to book whilst making sure a critical national asset as the ECG remains solvent.
” We have as a matter of urgency reduced the budgetary allocation of Ghc 500 million given to ECG to an amount of Ghc 250 million, because we must pay the power producers what is due them in the coming weeks. Today, the total indebtedness is close to Ghc80 billion in the energy sector and we must start rationalizing those costs as well.
We must act fast to salvage the situation in the energy sector, lest it collapses at a great cost to the state”.
