Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has criticized the management of Sunon Asogli Power Plant Limited for acting in “bad faith” by shutting down its production plant over the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) unpaid debt. The plant, a critical 560-megawatt power facility, halted operations due to ECG’s outstanding $259 million debt.
The shutdown raises concerns about a potential return to “dumsor”—intermittent power outages—with serious economic impacts on the country. Dr. Amin Adam, speaking to the media at the close of the Annual IMF-World Bank Meetings in Washington, D.C., assured the public that a resolution is underway.
He indicated that an agreement to settle the debt is expected to be signed within days, which would prevent further disruptions to Ghana’s power supply.
“Asogli submitted the final agreement for our review. We reviewed it and are fine with it except for one issue which led to the shutdown. So when the Ministry of Finance made the one-off payment to all the IPPs, we were supposed to pay Asogli $30 million and subsequently, they made a case for another $30 million but we did not agree to that so we finalise the negotiations with them on the arrears.
“ECG led the negotiations and as part of the settlement, ECG wanted us to pay the $30 million. ECG made a case for which we didn’t agree so I had meetings with Asogli and we agreed that we would pay but we wanted them to sign the settlement agreement because this is one of the terms of the agreement and they said no, we should pay before they sign but if it is part of the settlement agreement why should I implement an agreement that has not been signed.
So we communicated this to ourselves only for Asogli to come to say they no longer wanted $30 million but they wanted $60 million dollars and that if we don’t pay them they will shut down.” “So it will be as if we as a country, we don’t know our rights especially when an election is closer everybody thinks that when I put a gun on the head of government by going ahead to shut down, they acted in bad faith.”
By: Emmanuel Oppong
