Ghana’s energy sector arrears stood at some $ 1.6 billion, about 2.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product at the end of 2022.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the non-energy sector arrears at about GH¢35 billion (5.8% of Gross Domestic Product).
In its 2023 Article IV Consultation, the Bretton Wood institution said the government continued to accumulate payables during the first half of 2023, hence breaching the related programme indicative target (IT).
“The government had accumulated significant arrears in recent years. The stock-taking exercise conducted by the authorities (structural benchmark) assessed an overall stock of arrears at end-2022 broadly consistent with initial programme assumptions”
It pointed out that non-energy sector payables declined, but energy sector payables increased due to low recoveries in the sector, tight financing conditions, and pending negotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
It added that the energy sector payables are only monitored under the Indicative Target. Nonetheless, adjusting the primary balance to account for the accumulation of energy sector payables during H1 [first-half] of 2023 would still entail outperformance of the end-June primary balance target.