Ghana shedding load because gov’t has no funds to purchase fuel – Jinapor

Former Minister of Energy, John Abdulai Jinapor, has said Ghana has returned to load shedding due to lack of funds to purchase fuel for the plants.

He says the energy sector debt will be hitting GHC2.5 billion, raising further questions about the further depreciation of the cedi despite the non-servicing of external debt.

The Yapei Kusawgu Member of Parliament has also said government is going to be in serious trouble in 2026 when it starts servicing its external debts.

Mr. Jinapor’s comments were based on the government’s assertion that the country is recovering and getting to the pre-covid era where the economy was supposedly doing well.

“Even in the energy sector, the past six, seven days we have been shedding load. They’ve been shedding load because they don’t have enough money to buy fuel. The energy sector debt is hitting 2.5 billion.

“Ghana is not servicing its external debt as we speak and yet the currency is depreciating at this rate. Next year when we start servicing the debt, it means that we’ll need more foreign currency to service the debts.

“In 2026, that is where the real heat will come because it won’t just be interest payment, it will both be interest and principal and if you look at that bullet payment in 2026, we must be preparing for those periods so we are no where near that pre-covid era at all,” he said Saturday, October 26, 2024.

He stated that some independent power producers have shut down due to the lack of funds from the government to pay them.

“Yesterday (Friday, October 25), the load shedding was 450megawatts because Asogli couldn’t come on and the other plants couldn’t come on because government has no money to procure light crude oil for those plants and so we are shedding power,” he added.

Source:onuaonline.com