The government has described as misleading reports that Ghana is likely to incur a $1.5 billion financial loss in an agreement between the GNPC and a US-based Ghanaian-owned energy company, Genser Energy Holdings.
“For now, it is a bit exaggerated,” a Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy, Mohammed Amin said to the press.
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy and IMANI Africa revealed in a report that the deal in which Genser committed to pay a reasonable price for gas to power embedded or off-grid power plants it leases to various large mines and consumers in the cement and ceramics industries triggers possible financial recklessness on the part of GNPC.
But Mr. Amin said IMANI and ACEP should have been more measured while sharing their conclusions.
“I was thinking that before IMANI and ACEP would put out into the public domain matters of this consequence, they should have made these matters referable to GNPC.”
Ghana Gas which used to be a subsidiary of the GNPC has been invited to meet the committee on Monday on the matter.
The Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, is, however, expecting further details on the agreement between the GNPC and Genser.
He is concerned with the financial analysis underpinning the agreement and the thinking that went into the investment decisions.
“The committee will interrogate this matter to its logical solution… our duty is to make sure the State is not shortchanged,” he said.
