The passage of the Bui Power Authority Bill will help it diversify its financial streams and increase revenue, Fred Oware, Chief Executive Officer of the Authority has said.

Speaking to Citi Business News, Mr Oware said “We think that we should operate quite profitably, not only in terms of making profit but having the cash flow to finance our capital expenditures. These have been matters of grave concern, and so we wanted to cure that by prevailing on Parliament.”

He said “we actually took our matter there and argued and thankfully they saw the point that we made so, with the new Act we have the freedom to in addition to ECG, to look out for other off-takers who are prepared to do business with us whether locally, internally or externally.”

The bill he said empowers the Authority to develop renewable energy and other clean energy alternatives in the country.

“It also enables Bui Power, whose only off-taker currently is the Electricity Company of Ghana, to execute power purchase agreements directly with other utility companies or customers,” he said.

The Bill was laid in Parliament on October 30, 2020 by the Deputy Minister for Energy Joseph Cudjoe on behalf of the sector Minister, John Peter Amewu and thereafter referred by the Speaker to the Committee on Mines and Energy for consideration and report in accordance with Article 106 of the Constitution and Order 118 of the House’s Standing Orders.

Explaining the genesis of the Bill to the House, the Minister stated that the Government of Ghana in 2007 established the Bui Power Authority through the enactment of the Bui Power Authority Act, 2007 (Act 740) with the mandate to develop a hydroelectric power project on the Black Volta at Bui and any potential hydroelectric power site on the Black Volta River.

He further stated that the Authority had demonstrated enough institutional capacity in the area of renewable energy and successfully extended hydropower initiatives but its continuous investment and development of renewable energy had been questioned by auditors on several occasions as unlawful regarding the huge expenditure in an area which falls outside the scope of its mandate.