ACCRA, July 15 (Xinhua) — The World Bank Group has pledged to support Ghana to prevent a dire energy crisis that could hamstring the economy.
Anna Bjerde, the World Bank Group’s managing director for Operations, made this pledge at a press briefing held Friday in Accra, the capital of Ghana, to throw light on her four-day working visit to Ghana.
She stressed that part of her discussions with the Ghanaian government was over the challenges in the energy sector. “There has been deterioration in the performance of the energy sector over the past few years (in Ghana), particularly in the financial performance, and we are trying to help to prevent interruptions in energy supply,” Bjerde said.
She said the most pressing issue in Ghana’s energy sector is cost recovery due to weak revenue mobilization, adding that the World Bank support would help improve metering, billing, and revenue collection to pay for power generation.
“These problems are not unique to Ghana but need prompt action. It would cost the state more to keep the energy sector running when they need to spend money on other things if the level of financial losses is left unattended to,” Bjerde said. “Economic growth will be impacted, not to mention the impact on the population whether in schools, hospitals. The energy sector needs an emergency action plan to correct the situation, which the government is working on, and we are supporting it.”
She also said the World Bank Group would provide technical and financial assistance to the energy sector to ensure that the metering and billing systems are efficient and collection is robust to boost revenue to pay for power generation.
Ghana suffered a crippling power crisis between 2013 and 2015, prompting the government to invest heavily in expanding power generation. Most of the investment, however, was in partnership with independent power producers (IPPs), which means the country must ensure regular revenue flow from consumers to pay the IPPs.
According to Ghana’s Finance Ministry, the country currently owes the IPPs about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, with constant threats of shutting down, while the government has been negotiating a restructuring plan for the debt. ■
