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The Deputy Minister of Power, John Abu Jinapor has disclosed that government has released GHc200 million to defray debts it owed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Mr. Jinapor said the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper is currently working on the necessary processes to immediately make the money available the ECG.

“Most of ECG’s debt is debts owed to its suppliers in terms of power generators like VRA and the others including Asogli and the rest. So as I speak to you, the Minister of Finance, himself, has signed the warrant for GHc200 million to be released to pay some of ECG’s commitments.” “So government has released that, [and] we are currently going through the paper work and processes and the Minister is committed to doing further payments in addition to the GHc200 million,” he added. 

ECG embarks on massive disconnections

Reports indicate that government owes ECG close to GH¢1 billion, while individuals and corporate institutions owe it a little over GH¢600 million. In a bid to recover such debts; ECG has in the past few days embarked on a massive disconnection exercise which has so far affected some institutions in the country including a Police barracks at Tema Community 8, and the newly inaugurated Ayensu Starch Factory.

But a statement signed by the Deputy Minister of Power, John Abdulai Jinapor, while commending ECG for embarking on the disconnection exercise, also urged it to consider exempting health, educational and security installations from the disconnection exercise.

“Whilst we commend ECG in that regard, we wish to bring to your attention, Government’s decision to temporarily exclude certain critical categories from pre-payment metering and the mass disconnection exercise. These include critical installations in the health, security and educational institutions. The Ministry of Finance would continue to take steps to address the payment of arrears for such categories of institutions. We should therefore be grateful if you could act in line with the foregoing,” the statement added.