President Akufo-Addo has hinted that government intends listing the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCO) on the Stock Exchange.
This, he said, is part of a national electricity master plan being developed by government to solve the country’s debilitating power crisis.
“The current state of the energy situation in our country is unsatisfactory. We have begun to develop a national electricity master plan, which will also explore the benefits of listing VRA and GRIDCO on the Stock Exchange,” said Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, February 21, 2017.
Also, he said his government will enforce the procurement law, adding that: “We will insist on open and competitive bidding for power capacity procurement.”
He said the outgone National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of John Mahama messed up with the country’s energy sector, leaving behind huge debt.
Ghana for the past years has been suffering from erratic power supply, leading to the collapse of some businesses.
In a move to alleviate the effects of the crisis, the ex-Mahama administration imported two power ships to augment the country’s current power supply.
It also imported some plants from Ameri Power in that regard. Ghanaians were also made to pay more for power.
But addressing parliament in his first State of the Nation address, Akufo-Addo said the attempts by the previous government to resolve the power challenges had led to “a gargantuan debt overhang in the sector.”
“We have inherited a heavily indebted energy sector, with the net debt reaching $US2.4 billion as at December 2016. I have to point out the alarming fact that 800 million US dollars of this debt is owed to local banks, which threatens their stability. Huge indebtedness of the energy sector constitutes the single major hurdle to Ghanaians enjoying reliable and affordable electricity supply,” he said.
