The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) takes notice of the Novation and Amendments to the AMERI contract presented to parliament for ratification. The AMERI contract has been on the public radar for the past three years for an obvious position that the contract was overpriced, depriving the Ghanaian public value for money in a $510 million deal. The commitment of the current government was to renegotiate the contract to bring relief to the public through the electricity tariffs. Sadly, the proposed amendment to the contract appears more burdensome than the existing contract.

Status of the existing contract

The first year of the contract was fully paid for by the NDC government before it exited power. This translates to $102 million, which is the full value of the required payments for the 250MW plant at an availability rating of 90%.

The AMERI Company presented invoice to the tune of $151.66 million to the NPP government between February 2017 and June 2018. Out of this amount, $69million has been paid by the NPP government, leaving an outstanding balance of $82.66 million. An invoice to the tune of $8.5 million shall be due and submitted to government by 31st July, 2018. This will bring the total outstanding invoiced amount to $91.16 million.

It is important to mention that the total settlement to date (under both NDC and NPP government) therefore is about $171 million. Under the $510 million contract, government has about two and half years left to own the 250MW plant, conditioned on the payment of the outstanding balance of $339million.