PUWU urges government to review contracts with IPPs

The Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) has called on government to, as matter of urgency, review the contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to save revenue for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to PUWU, ECG pays over 600 million cedis a month to these power producers which has dissipated the coffers of the power distributor.

General Secretary of PUWU Timothy Nyame said this in an exclusive interview with our labour affairs correspondent in Accra on March 21.

“Government should intervene to let price power in cedis. This is because of the volatile nature of our currency, early last year it was ten cedis to a dollar and we have to change into so much cedis so let us denominate it in cedis to pay the IPPs,” he suggested.

Mr Nyame also called for a review of the take or pay aspects of the agreements.

“Also, there are some agreements that the IPPs have tabled, whether we use or not we pay for it, and I am sure it will help Ghanaians and the tariff regime,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the Union has also appealed to the Management of ECG to be quick in addressing the power outages Ghanaians are facing.

Parts of the country, especially the Ashanti Region have been experiencing erratic power supply lately. This has led to demands for load shedding timetable to enable consumers plan their lives.

However, the Energy Minister, Mr John Jinapor says there is no need for a loadshedding timetable. He says there is enough reserve of power to cater for the needs of consumers.

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