A member of the communications team of the New Patriotic Party, Grace Akosua Amoabeng, has addressed claims by the Mahama administration that it has made unprecedented payments to clear energy sector debts, insisting that the previous New Patriotic Party government had already been servicing those obligations.
According to her, the National Democratic Congress administration is engaging in public relations by presenting routine debt payments as a major achievement, even though similar payments were consistently made by the New Patriotic Party before it left office.
Speaking on Joy Prime on January 13 and monitored by NewsDeskGH, Grace Amoabeng said the energy sector debt situation inherited by the New Patriotic Party from the National Democratic Congress were high.
“When NPP came into power we had debts that we cleared. The then President signed a contract, the take and pay agreement, we had incurred a lot of losses and we had to pay.”
“If you look at it, that is the reason why we’re here at this time because if NPP didn’t take their time to religiously pay these bills, we wouldn’t be here at this point.”
Grace Amoabeng further disclosed that when the New Patriotic Party assumed office, they negotiated the payment of a huge debt tied to energy contracts.
“When NPP came to power, we had a 2.1 billion debt sitting there, and because of the agreement that was signed we were incurring loss of 1 billion every year till they signed an agreement and the amount reduced to 600 million every year.”
Based on her assessment, she said per her calculation the debt should’ve been almost 7 billion dollars.
She maintained that the debt position inherited by the National Democratic Congress does not reflect years of neglect, but rather sustained payments by the New Patriotic Party.
“But when the NDC came into power they had 3 billion debt which means that the NPP was already doing this. We were already religiously paying these IPPs,” she added.
She also disputed claims that the current government’s payments are unprecedented, noting that significant settlements were made shortly before the New Patriotic Party exited office.
“Even before we left power just 2024 we paid 1.4 billion, we settled all these debts.”
Grace Amoabeng accused the NDC of selectively presenting figures to the public while ignoring earlier payments made by the NPP.
“It was in their budget but the NDC never read that part. They just put it out that they paid for Ghanaians to see, without putting out what we paid before we left power.”
“So if they’re paying, it’s good that they’re doing PR gimmicks but this is not new.”
The comments follow a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance on January 12, announcing that the Mahama administration had paid approximately US$1.470 billion in 2025 to clear inherited energy sector debts and restore Ghana’s World Bank Partial Risk Guarantee.
According to the Ministry, the payments formed part of a comprehensive energy sector reset aimed ending years of persistent non-payment to Independent Power Producers (IPP), as well as stabilising electricity generation and restoring investor confidence.
“The Government of Ghana assures the general public, industry stakeholders, and international partners that the era of uncontrolled energy sector debt accumulation is over,” the statement has said.
