ECG clears air over gov’t’s debt payment

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has expressed concerns over some commentaries within the public space regarding Government of Ghana announcement of the payment of its debts.

In a statement signed by its Managing Director, Kwame Agyemang-Budu, ECG took time to clarify some apparent misconceptions in the public about the announcement.

According to the statement, a reconciliation exercise was undertaken by ECG with all suppliers including VRA and the Independent Power Producers as well as the Ministry of Finance for the end of year 2019, where all forms of “government debt” made up of MDA bills, consumption by Ghana Water Company Limited, Government subsidiaries and shortfall in public lighting for the period 2019 was reconciled.

“We established that as at end of 2016, total GoG indebtedness to ECG netting off all government payments was Ghc 2.63 billion,” the statement indicated.

It says “ECG further realized that between 2017 and 2019 GoG averagely paid GHC2 billion directly to ECG’s suppliers (I.e. VRA, IPPs and GRIDCo) to defray GoG’s indebtedness to ECG.”

It added that “total GoG account as at end of 2019 has a credit balance of GHC505.8 billion.”

The statement said considering the GoG’s average bill of GHC100 million a month, the outstanding GoG credit of GHC 505.8 billion is enough to pay its bill for January to April 2020.

By Melvin Tarlue

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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