President John Dramani Mahama has expressed worry over the failure of the previous administration to use the Energy Sector Levy (ESLA), introduced by him for its intended purpose.

"We passed the ESLA levy, but after we passed it, we left office in December and the new government came in and they had other ideas and other ways of trying to do things.

Unfortunately, one of the outcomes was that ESLA was not used for its intended purpose, and the revenues of ESLA were mismanaged," he said.

President Mahama made the disclosure yesterday when he met independent power producers (IPPs) to discuss the state of the energy sector and explore ways to improve the collaboration.

In a meeting that was partially held behind closed doors, President Mahama acknowledged the critical role the IPPs have played in addressing the country’s energy needs.

The President assured the IPPs of the commitment of his administration to work with them to address the challenges facing the energy sector.

"We must let the Ghanaian people know what the situation is. You need to let people know the challenge before you go ahead and solve it," he said. 

Debt

President Mahama reflected on the twin challenges of increasing power generation and addressing the debt accumulated in the sector.

“We all remember the time of the power crisis, popularly called 'dumsor'. It was important that we expanded the space for independent power producers, because government, on its own, could not always leverage the capital to put in the generation that was required,” he said.

The President noted that the energy sector was currently burdened with debt, estimated at around $2.5 billion.

"If you take $2.5 billion, and imagine that when an IMF programme allows for $3 billion, if you're trying to achieve macroeconomic stability with a bailout of $3 billion, and you have a part sector debt of $2.5 billion that you have not yet come up with any strategy for dealing with, then you can be sure that it can wreck any fiscal consolidation that you achieve under the IMF programme," he warned.

ECG

President Mahama underscored private sector involvement in the metering and billing operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to help reduce the ECG’s losses and improve revenue collection.

“Even as irregular as PDS was and as inefficient as it was, you could see an increase in the revenue that was being collected,” he said. “If we do it more transparently, more fairly, more competitively, I’m sure that we’ll get an efficient partner to join us in terms of billing and metering,” he said. 

Other meetings

President Mahama earlier held a meeting with the Executive Committee of the National House of Chiefs.

The discussions centred on pressing national issues and the role of traditional leaders in promoting development and peace.

Particularly, the President expressed concern over the growing number of chieftaincy disputes in various traditional areas which could become a national security threat. 

He said the situation where rival chiefs emerged upon the demise of a chief was worrying and must be addressed.

“All the security briefings I got after December 7, the issue of chieftaincy disputes has become a major issue. Anytime a chief passes away and a chief is selected, invariably two or three rival chiefs suddenly appear,” the President said.

Kantamanto traders

Later in the day, President Mahama met the leadership of Kantamanto traders.

The meeting provided an opportunity for the traders to share their concerns and ideas with the President, who assured them of his administration's commitment to supporting the growth of small businesses and improving market infrastructure.

In a meeting with the traders, President Mahama acknowledged the heavy loss and assured them of his administration's support.

He revealed that his government had taken steps to prevent such fires from happening in the future.

"We can't rule out the possibility of arsonists being behind these fires," he said.

"We've held a meeting with security heads to tackle this issue, and I've asked them to tighten security around markets," President Mahama said.

To prevent future fires, President Mahama has instructed the fire service to set up stations near major markets and install cameras to identify and apprehend anyone responsible for setting fires.

He also pledged to work with traders to rebuild the market in a better-designed way and to provide support to cushion their losses.