Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo performed well in his maiden State of the Nation Address to parliament on Tuesday February 21, former President Jerry John Rawlings has said.
He told Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, in a brief interview a few hours after the president’s address that: “I thought he did quite well.”
President Nana Akufo-Addo in the address mentioned, among other things, that his government would be listing state power producer Volta River Authority (VRA) and transmitter GRIDCo on the Exchange is to be explored as part of measures towards fixing the energy sector and clearing its “heavy indebtedness”.
Additionally, the president said his government had begun to develop a national electricity master plan, which will also explore the benefits of listing VRA and GRIDCo on the Stock Exchange.
According to him, his predecessor John Mahama left behind a heavily indebted energy sector.
“The attempts by the previous government to resolve the ‘dumsor’ crisis have led to a gargantuan debt overhang in the sector,” Nana Akufo-Addo said.
“We have inherited a heavily indebted energy sector, with the net debt reaching $2.4billion as of December 2016,” the president said, adding: “I have to point out the alarming fact that $800 million of this debt is owed to local banks, which threatens their stability.
“Huge indebtedness of the energy sector constitutes the single major hurdle to Ghanaians enjoying reliable and affordable electricity supply
“The cost of energy destroys businesses, large and small. It destroys jobs. It compounds poverty. The current state of the energy situation in our country is unsatisfactory,” he said.
“My government will enforce the procurement law. We will insist on open and competitive bidding for power capacity procurement.”
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