Ghana's government said it will pay a Nigerian gas
consortium $170 million it owes by February,
apparently resolving a dispute that led the consortium
to threaten to cut its supply.
Ghana's state power generating company, the Volta River Authority, will
settle the debt to Nigeria's N-Gas in three tranches starting in
November, said Kweku Sersah, a spokesman for Ghana's Ministry of Power.
He said that the terms were still being finalised.
"The high-powered delegation that went ... (to the
Nigerian capital Abuja) was able to negotiate for Nigeria Gas (N-Gas) to
continue to supply the country the needed gas," Sersah said in a
statement posted on the ministry's Facebook page.
Ghana's government has promised to end crippling power blackouts by the end of the year.
Ghana gets around 25 percent of its power through gas from
Nigeria. The threat by N-Gas to reduce supplies by 70 percent would
have made it harder to achieve the government's goal of tackling
blackouts and could have raised the cost of supply.
The issue is sensitive in the run-up to Ghana's election
next year that is expected to be closely fought. Power cuts have angered
voters and come on top of a sharp slowdown in the economy, which for
years was one of Africa's strongest.
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