The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) owes the nine Independent Power Producers (IPPs) supporting the state-owned energy sector millions of US dollars.

One of the plants, Sunon Asogli completely shut down in October due to a debt of $259 million.

The other eight IPPs in the country have also complained about the government’s inability to pay them for the power they generated and distributed to the nation.

Speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile on Saturday, November 23, with Samson Lardy Ayenini about the power crisis in the country, the acting Managing Director (MD) of ECG, Ing. Asamoah David, revealed that the debt situation has worsened due to the instability of the forex market.

“The truth is that the majority of these debts are a result of a forex shortfall.”

He explained, “Each month, just from forex, we lose about 37 million. So, if you get the money and pay, getting the dollars becomes a problem. Sometimes, you will even make a payment, and it will take days or weeks before the IPPs receive it because of the dollar.”

Ing. Asamoah further noted that if payments were made in cedis, there would be no debt. “If it were in cedis, I would pay. But now, when I pay the money, the banks have to get the dollars and convert them before they pay the IPPs, and by the time they pay, if the dollar increases, it means we still have a shortfall.”

He went on to say that the company is doing its best to overcome the challenge with payments. “So, for the payments, we are doing our best to pay,” he said, adding, “We have an agreement with them now on how it’s going to be paid. ECG will pay part, and the Ministry will come in. Just yesterday [Friday], they sent me a message saying they have agreed.”

The MD also noted that the IPPs have agreed to resume work smoothly following the new agreement. He stated that Sunon Asogli would resume operations in the coming weeks, and others who had reduced their power supply would also increase their output.

The IPPs are private energy firms that produce and supply additional power to the nation in support of the Akosombo plant, which is a state-owned company.