Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have told the Minister of Finance that if their arrears are not paid by June 30, they will not be in a position to continue the generation of electricity.
The IPPs said their earlier request to the Ministry of Finance to pay an interim 30 percent of their arrears to enable them to continue to operate has not been heeded.
“We refer to our letters dated March 27, 2023 and May 25, 2023 with reference numbers IPGG/1/2023 and IPGG/2/2023 addressed to the Minister [Finance] by which the IPP Chamber stressed the urgent necessity for the government to prioritise payment of the outstanding arrears owed to members of the IPP Chamber to enable the IPPs to cover critical operational costs required to continue operations and pay overdue debt service”, they said in a statement.
The statement added: “We had indicated in our letters that IPPs needed to receive an interim payment of 30% of the outstanding arrears of each IPP by 20th June 2023.
“Unfortunately, we have not seen any good faith indication or commitment of such impending payment from ECG/Government as of today, June 21, 2023, despite the Electricity Company of Ghana’s recent collection efforts, as reported in the media, which yielded circa ¢3.1 billion.
“At an emergency meeting of the IPP Chamber held on Tuesday 20th of June 2023, it was resolved that unless the IPPs receive the interim payment requested by the 30th June 2023 the members of the IPP Chmaber will not be in a position to guarantee the continued generation of electricity after 30th June.”