Government pays GH¢16.45 billion to IPPs, fuel suppliers - Deputy Energy Minister

Government has paid a total of GH¢16.45 billion to both Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and fuel suppliers between 2016 and June 2021 on behalf of the Electricity Company of Ghana.

Out of these disbursements, GH¢12,079,567,156.33 was paid to the IPPs and GH¢ 4,366,383,302.39 was paid to fuel suppliers.

William Owuraku Aidoo, the Deputy Minister of Energy, made the disclosure when he appeared before Parliament to respond to a question by Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, the Majority Chief Whip, on how much money government had paid in relation to IPPs for the past eight years and what the breakdowns were.

He gave the breakdown of payments to the IPPs as follows; 2016 – GH¢343,206,500; 2017 - GH¢1,072,452,401.19; 2018 - GH¢1,971,600,645; 2019 - GH¢2,751,406,551.68; 2020 - GH¢4,328,648,558.46; and as at June, 2021 – GH¢1,612,252,500.

The payments made to fuel supplies are: 2019- GH¢1,840,884,332.77; 2020 – GH¢1,597,103,969.62; and GH¢928,395,000 as at June 2021.