Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor has emphasised the need for government to invest in the Volta River Authority by securing more thermal plants to bear down utility tariffs for every consumer.
According to him, government could be saving about $840 million annually which is used to purchase power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs). He said this amount could channeled to strength the VRA’s generation capacity.
Speaking during a working visit to the VRA on Friday, October 17, 2025, Mr. Jinapor stressed that this amount could be used to expand VRA’s production and do away with the huge sums paid to IPPs.
“I was telling your Chief Executive that my experience with the IPPs has shown me that we have to invest heavily in VRA. We do the economics, and today, you look at how much we pay to IPPs every month. If we had taken a bold decision and decided that, look, the tariffs we are charging today, let’s escrow those amounts into an account. We’re talking about about $70 million every month, US dollars.
“That is on the back of the envelope…$840 million every year, not cedis times the number of years the IPPs have been operating. Don’t you think if we had escrowed this money, we could have built more thermal plants at VRA and sell the power at a cheaper price? But the reality is that sometimes we all pretend,” he said.
The Minister further revealed that the government has saved about $300 million through renegotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), a move he believes is an important step in protecting Ghana’s energy industry.
“The IPPs, based on the numbers I’m seeing, I’m confident that we can save a lot of money. So far, what the IPP renegotiating team has done tells me that we are saving about $300 million dollars from the IPPs,” he stated.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
