The government can now heave a sigh of relief as one significant Independent Power Producer (IPP) has finally agreed to sign onto the state’s IPP Debt Restructuring Programme.
The resolution of Sunon Asogli to sign the restructuring agreement brings the total number of IPPs who have struck a deal with the government to three out of a total of six.
Asogli now joins CENIT and AKSA as IPPs who have finalized negotiations with the government and signed onto the government’s agenda to restructure its indebtedness to the IPPs.
The negotiations with Asogli were marked by a dramatic turn of events as a stalemate over some payments led to the IPP shutting down its plant in an attempt to force the hand of government to kowtow to their demands.
Speaking to the Press in Washington DC as part of the ongoing IMF Meetings, Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam contended that Asogli’s shutdown was an attempt to plunge the country into dumsor to force the hand of the government to do their bidding.
But the scheme, the minister said could not work since the country has more than enough generation capacity in addition to the uninterrupted operations of the other IPPs.
“Ghana has a number of power plants that are generating electricity for the people. And so one power plant shuts down does not mean that other plants are not generating. And this is why in spite of the shutdown we did not have a shortfall,” the Finance Minister told the press.
Dr. Amin Adam revealed that the contention that led to the shutdown of Asogli was the demand for an outrageous US$ 60 million one-off payment before they signed the agreement. However, the Ministry vehemently opposed the demands insisting that they are part of the agreements in the contract and hence must be signed before payment.
He noted that they went ahead and shut down. However, with the insistence of the Ministry for the right things to be done, Dr. Amin Adam revealed that Asogli has reached out with a softened stance to now sign the deal.
“We wanted them to sign the settlement agreement because this is one of the terms of the agreement. They said, no, we should pay before they sign. But if it is part of the settlement agreement, why should I implement an agreement that has not been signed? And so we communicated this to Asogli only for Asogli to come and say they no longer want 30 million, now they want 60 million. And if we don’t pay them 60 million, they will shut down,” the Minister narrated.
He further revealed that he has been ” informed only yesterday that I was told that they are ready to sign the settlement agreement. And so we’ve instructed ECG to go ahead and sign.”
The Minister used the opportunity to send the signal that no entity can hold the state to ransom or use the elections as a bargaining chip to blackmail the nation.
“People behave as if we as a country, we don’t know our rights or we don’t know what we want especially when the election is closer. Everybody thinks that look, I can put a gun on the head of Ghana. And so by going ahead to shut down, they acted in bad faith. This is not how partners work together, particularly when it involves financial negotiations,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, the stable power supply touted by the Minister despite the shutdown of the Asogli Power Plant is vehemently contested. Major parts of the country have been experiencing intermittent power outages for some time now.
