Mr. John Jinapor, a former Deputy Minister of Energy, stated the position of the Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) at a press conference in Accra. It came after the Energy Minister, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, had laid before Parliament, the renegotiated power deal.

According to the government, the new agreement would save the country US$405 million over a 15-year period.The Minority, however, is unconvinced and accusing the government of a rip off.  It has labelled the agreement as “scandalous” and “shady”. 

Under the new arrangement, a new company - Mytilineous International Trading Company would take over the running of the AMERI power plant for 15 years.  The company has offered to pay AMERI an amount of US$52,160,560.00, with the government paying the remaining US$39 million to AMERI Energy so Ghana could wash its hands off the original deal.

Mr Jinapor said the new agreement was a betrayal of public trust by the government, adding that, the deal was not in the interest of the nation. The government of Ghana in 2015 signed a deal with AMERI Energy to supply 10 TM2500 power turbines to produce 250 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

This was done at a time the nation was reeling under an unbearable power crisis.

Under the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement the Africa &Middle East Resources Investment Group LLC (AMERI) had the sole responsibility to source funding, construct the plant, including the installation of all auxiliary services and to operate the plant for minimum period of five years.

The agreement had a deferred payment of US$510 million to be repaid over the five-year period after which the entire plant would be reverted to the government of Ghana.