The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2024 Manifesto Committee on Energy, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, has debunked suggestions that the current challenges with power supply have been caused by the government’s inability to purchase fuel.
According to him, although the government has the resources to purchase fuel, gas suppliers, including Nigeria, failed to deliver the needed volume.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Newsnight on April 23, the claims about lack of funding were merely propaganda being pushed by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“Stop buying into people’s propaganda…there is a simple propaganda that all of you have bought into, which is ‘this thing about government needs money to buy fuel.’ I am asking you which fuel does government need money to buy? You can’t even tell me.
“You don’t buy gas. You see that is the problem. Sometimes, there is a shortage of gas because of the light flow coming from Nigeria. So when we have less flow coming from Nigeria or let’s say Ghana Gas has tripped and there isn’t enough gas coming from there, you need liquid fuel to power some of these machines and the Cenpower can use light crude oil, Aksa can use HFO and then the TTP plant can use diesel. So when people say that government doesn’t have money to do fuel, they are saying that government doesn’t have money to buy gas. We don’t have to buy gas cash and carry.
“What they are saying is that we need money for the liquid fuel to supplement the shortage when there is a gas shortfall,” he said.https://www.youtube.com/embed/30-AyORoyZA
“Government has money to buy gas, government does not owe anybody before they have to supply,” he insisted.
He stressed that the recent power outages were because Nigeria kept falling short on the amount of gas they needed to supply to the country.
“We need to basically negotiate with Nigeria for more gas. The reason we need to negotiate with Nigeria for more gas is that Nigeria is having challenges. They are not able to meet the required gas they are supposed to give us. Every time Nigeria has given us more gas we have been able to pay for the gas.
“So when we say that this is not about money, let’s not listen to the NDC propaganda where they are saying that government is broke,” he added.
Meanwhile, JoyNews Research has found that the Energy sector is expected to have a generation shortfall of GH₵23.65 billion.
It suggests that the energy sector is already experiencing a deficit in the funds required to sustain its operations.
Prior to the current power outages, government would have borrowed money from bonds including Daakye Bonds, ESLA, and GoG, but due to the Domestic Debt Restructuring Programmes (DDEP), the bond market has collapsed.
The Bank of Ghana which could also have stepped in to provide funds is signed on a zero percent financing of government projects.
The research desk also found that even with the International Capital Market (Eurobonds), Ghana has no access to borrowing.
Although the nearest amount Ghana can use will be the IMF’s $720 million with the nearest disbursement being $360 million, the amount is expected to be disbursed by June 2024.
And the World Bank is expected to give the country some $620 million. This amount is supposed to go into various projects; $300 million into Development Policy Operation, $70 million into Ghana Productive Safety Net Project, $250 million into Emergency Financial Sector Support and $44 million in African Development Bank.
This implies that the government is handicapped and does not have the resources to fund energy sector and resolve the crisis.
Mr Poku argues that these figures were deduced from ‘Voodoo mathematics’ and do not represent the situation on the ground accurately. He contends that the government is not facing financing challenges but rather supply issues.
“If you want to find out why we are in darkness, let’s have a conversation. Let’s not prejudice the conversation by saying that the government is broke, the IMF and all the voodoo mathematics you and your colleagues went through,” he said.
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