Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has attributed the ongoing debt crisis in the country's energy sector to mismanagement by the government.

He expressed concern that this mismanagement could lead to an energy crisis with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) already demanding substantial payments owed to them.

Mr. Dafeamekpor emphasized that the operations of IPPs are financially demanding, and they require timely payments to sustain their operations. The failure to settle these debts puts the viability of these power producers at risk.

“Where we are, the government has mismanaged the energy sector and running us into a crisis if we’re not careful. So I’m not surprised that the IPPs are demanding blood.

“They need these payments. If you look at the nature of their operations, the operations are very cost intensive. So they need these monies,” he said on JoyNews’ AM show on Thursday.

The politician expressed that the economy the current government inherited from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is one that could have seen their progress doubled in the present year if they had followed the trajectory.

According to him, the blame on the Covid-19 pandemic for the economic challenges extending to the energy sector is not substantial.

This, he expressed is because, in the wake of the pandemic, the government received huge sums of “free monies” from international bodies. “So how did you expend it?” he questioned.

The IPPs are threatening to cut power supply to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) should the debt owed them not be paid.Should this happen, many companies, businesses, and government institutions could cease operations.

Government owes these power producers about $1.5 billion, an amount accumulated between January 2022 and March 2023.

Meanwhile, the IPPs have said that government should at least by July 1, pay 30% of the total debt in order to avoid power outages.