Mahama left $5.2bn energy debt

• Posted on June 5, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo has said his government inherited a $5.2 billion debt in Ghana’s energy sector from the previous Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, half of which has been paid, while the remainder hanged on the neck of his administration like an albatross.

Noting that Government was seriously working to offset the debt, he indicated: “I think if there is one thing I regret about my presidency, it is that we didn’t attack those problems early enough” adding that his administration should have done that in 2017 to avoid some of the current problems confronting the sector.

“I’ve learnt my lesson. We are going to make a much better phase of reforming those agreements so that we can take the burden off our shoulders”.

The President, who was addressing a town hall meeting of Ghanaian residents in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday, said situations responsible for the constant power outages Ghanaians were forced to endure, were from the previous Mahama-led administration.

Revival of national airline

He continued that in a month or two, Government would be announcing the re-establishment of a national airline. 

“We are entering into an arrangement with Ethiopian Airlines to partner with them to establish a new…I don’t know whether it will be called Ghana Airways”, he noted even though he would prefer the name Ghana Airways is maintained if it happens. 

President Akufo-Addo enumerated several programmes and policies that were being implemented by his administration to help Ghana’s development process. Among these were the ‘Free Senior High School’ programme which guaranteed free education from primary to secondary school; the digitisation of the economy which had led to a replacement of paper trays into software applications like the paperless port policy; the introduction of the ‘National ID Card’; ‘One District One Factory’ policy; ‘a reduction in port charges between 30 and 50 percent’; the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ and many more.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Toronto, Canada