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The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy
Policy, Ben Boakye, alleges that Government of Ghana is propping up Genser to collapse
state energy companies.
Mr. Boakye made this assertion on the JoyNews’ Newsfile
platform on Saturday October 1, 2022. He asserts that “Genser is into a
competitive market where they are selling power to mines just as VRA is
generating and selling to everybody else including the mines. As we speak
today, VRA has lost 40MW of the market to Genser because they can’t compete.
ECG has also lost 20MW of the market because they can’t compete.”
His comment comes after IMANI Africa and the Africa Center
for Energy Policy (ACEP) alleged that Ghana buys gas for 95.8 million dollars
and sells to Genser for 43.5 million dollars accounting for a $1.5 billion
financial loss to the state.
According to Ben Boakye, the underpricing of gas sold to
Genser by the government has given the energy company an undue advantage over
state energy companies which continue to buy gas at market price.
He noted that as a result, Genser has managed to capture
about 60MW of the energy market from state energy companies.
He further explained that government subsidizing the price
of gas sold to Genser will enable the energy company capture a large portion of
the energy market; eventually crippling the state energy company.
He noted that should the calls for a review of the energy
deal with Genser fall on deaf ears, Ghana stands to lose billions in revenue.
Touching on expansion, Mr. Boakye added that as Genser
expands their operations across the country, state energy enterprises will have
little fighting chance to survive.
“And gradually they’re building to Kumasi, they intend to
build a pipeline all the way to the Eastern Region, Kyebi area to also supply
the mines over there and it’s the state that is supplying all these subsidies
“So, if you look at all that is happening in the space it
appears to me that we’re actually developing a Trojan horse to cannibalise all
the state enterprises in the energy sector in the long run and that shouldn’t
be patronized by independents like us who are also interested in how the state
agencies function even with all of their difficulties.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that we do not add on to
the pressures that they’re facing by just doing some of these transactions,” he
said.
Tagged Ben Boakye, Genser Deal
