Ameri Offers Ghana Discount on Power Deal After Cost Dispute

(Bloomberg) -- Africa Middle East Resources Investment Ltd. said it offered Ghana fresh terms for a 250 megawatt power deal that the government said was priced too high.

The Ameri plants will supply Ghana power for the five-year term of the agreement until 2021 at a cost of $459 million, Francis Kpollu, the company’s country manager, said Thursday in an interview in the capital, Accra. The deal was priced $510 million when it was first agreed in 2015 with the previous administration of former President John Mahama, at a time when Ghana was experiencing chronic blackouts.

The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who took power in January 2017, ordered a renegotiation of Ameri’s contract. In August, Akufo-Addo fired Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko for tabling a more costly deal to parliament.

The new proposal will be submitted to lawmakers on Friday, Kpollu said. At the end of the deal’s term, Ghana will take ownership of the plants. The country will be granted an additional year to make a final payment, while $90 million in arrears since 2017 will be paid over five months from November, he said.

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