President approves new AMERI deal

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has by executive order approved the renegotiated AMERI deal which is currently awaiting Parliamentary approval.

A statement by the President’s secretary, Nana Asante Bediatuo stated that “the President of the Republic of Ghana has granted executive approval for the Novation and Amendment Agreement dated July 20, 2018 between (i) the Government of the Republic of Ghana represented by the Minister for Energy ( or his authorised representative), (ii) Volta River Authority(VRA), (iii) Africa and Middle East Resource Investment Group(AMERI ENERGY), (iv) Ameri Energy Power Equipment Trading LLC ( AMERI EQUIPMENT), (v) Power Projects Sanayi Insaat Ticanet Limited Sirketi (PPR), and (vi) Mytilineos International Trading Company AG (Mytilineos) , for operations and maintenance of the existing 250MW AMERI Thermal Plant at Aboadzi, for a period of 15 years.”

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration recently began taking steps to amend portions of the controversial $510 million deal signed by the John Mahama administration.

The current government believes that there was no value-for-money in the deal signed by the NDC administration, hence the renegotiations. The agreement covering the new deal was laid before Parliament on Thursday for approval.

Many including Senior Staff Association and the Public Services Workers Union at the VRA have said the new deal “will bring more hardship to the good people of our dear country- Ghana.”

But according to the NPP administration, it found out that the government had been shortchanged by AMERI as they presented an overpriced budget, and were overpaid by $150 million.

The new administration thus commenced a renegotiation process to ensure value for money.