<<Print>>

It has been revealed that President John Dramani Mahama was petitioned over the controversial AMERI Energy deal that will cost the country US$510million for the next five years.

A Member of Parliament for Afigya Kwabre South (formerly Kwabre West), William Owuraku Aidoo was believed to have petitioned the president on April 8, 2015 on the subject matter.

Mr. Aidoo who is also a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy said in his petition that – it’s either President Mahama recall the deal and abrogate it or ensure that it was renegotiated since the entire agreement was not going to inure to the benefit of the country.

Parliament had on March 20, 2015, approved the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group Llc (AMERI Energy) for the installation of ten (10) GE TM 2,500+ aero derivative gas turbines, operate, maintain, transfer and provision of support services.

Per the commercial terms of the agreement, Ghana is expected to pay US$850,000 per month per unit of the derivative gas turbines which has an output of 23MW.

That means the country is expected to make a total payment of US$102million per year for the ten derivative gas turbines with a variable charge of US$0.005/kwh (US$16.6million per annum).

However, on Kasapa FM - Mr. Aidoo argued in his petition that the country could have gone to the open market and bought same set of generators for US$220million outright rather than to lease it for five years at that huge cost.