Independent Power Producers paid US$937 million by government since 2017

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that government paid US$937.5 million to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) as excess capacity charges in the last four years.

Appearing before Parliament on Thursday to answer questions on payments to IPPs, Mr. Ofori-Atta told the lawmakers that the payments were made to three companies. These were AKSA, which received an amount of US$347.2 million; Karpowership, which was paid US$359 million; and Cenpower, which received US$231.3 million.

Meanwhile, the Minister also told Parliament that GH¢10bn worth of bonds were sold by the government to the Bank of Ghana in 2020.

He said this in response to a question posed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, on the total amount of temporary advances from the Bank of Ghana to government last year.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said there were no temporary advances from the central bank to government in 2020, but added that repayment of the GH¢10 billion of bonds will commence in November 2022.