The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCO) has issued a warning that if its cash flow issues are not immediately resolved, a steady supply of electricity may be compromised.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) owe them GHC2.7 billion, according to the company’s managing director Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi, who made the announcement on Monday during a press briefing.
GRIDCo claims that the debtors don’t have a specific plan in place to pay off the debt.
“From our last count, I think it is about 2.7 billion – ECG and NEDCo. The debt impacts our operations …it is an issue that is the reason government makes a conscious effort to find some resources for us to do the investment that we require. It is all with the understanding that this legacy debt will have to be addressed in a strategic way over time,” he said.
He added that there is a bulk of compensation that GRIDCo ought to pay to land owners who have leased out their lands to be used.
The Managing Director said the current state of the economy could worsen if there is a cut in electricity supply.
“.…tough economy not only the availability of fuel and electricity, the economy is tough, but if we don’t have these too, it will worsen the situation,” he stated.
The Grid Company is also spending over $200,000 to repair each destroyed power tower by illegal miners or ‘galamseyers’.
According to the Managing Director, some of their metal lines have been cut by scrap dealers, making power supply difficult.
“Galamsey cost is huge, some of them instead of one tower, we need to leave the tower place, get contractors to spend maybe $200,000 to insert an additional tower which under normal circumstances we shouldn’t have.
“When they do and the tower collapses, the cost of unserved energy, because industries will go down. Those are all big costs that we easily don’t quantify but it is really a challenge to us,” he said.