Former Finance Minister and current Presidential Advisor on the Economy, Seth Terkper, has strongly criticized the past administration for what he calls the misuse of the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) funds, saying they have no moral right to attack President John Mahama’s government.
Speaking in an interview on GTV Breakfast show on Tuesday June 24, 2025, Mr. Terkper revealed that in April 2017, during a spring meeting in Washington, D.C., officials from the then-new government—including the Vice President, the Finance Minister, and the Energy Minister by assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that the Mahama administration had left behind funds under ESLA to pay off energy sector debts, including those owed to Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
He questioned why those funds were not used as intended. “Instead of using the ESLA flows to pay the debt, the past administration used them as collateral to borrow more money,” Mr. Terkper said. “If they had used the money well, we wouldn’t still be talking about unpaid debts to IPPs today.”
Mr. Terkper explained that the Mahama administration had already started paying off the energy sector debts. “We gave VRA [Volta River Authority] GHS 500 million and brought in the banks to restructure the debts. We had a clear plan to pay GHS 2.2 billion over three to five years.”
According to him, despite this plan, the debt rather increased under the past government. “They left the IPPs unpaid, and now the debt has grown to over GHS 3.2 billion. How then can they come back and criticize us?”
He also pointed out that ESLA funds were not only meant to pay debts, but were also used to support fuel subsidies under Mahama. “We even used part of the ESLA to fill fuel reserves when prices were low, so that Ghanaians would not suffer when prices go up,” he added. He said this same idea was recently brought back by current officials, claiming it’s not a new policy.
Mr. Terkper stressed that if the past government had continued with such sound policies, Ghana would not be facing frequent fuel price hikes and energy supply issues today.
“President Mahama is already thinking long-term. He plans to bring back international oil companies and improve local production. That is how we reduce pressure on imported fuel and protect Ghanaians from global price shocks,” he said.
