AMERI: The ultimate 'chop-chop' of the Mahama Administration

$200 million of the Ameri deal signed by the previous administration lined the pockets of Mahama and his cronies. As usual, they [opposition NDC] are toying with the minds of us Ghanaians by feigning ignorance since they are in opposition.

The Mytilenos Group was engaged after the negotiations to provide the financing of the T10 project, now commonly referred to as “AMERI”. It is not in any way associated or affiliated with Ameri. Ameri is a separate entity if you want to call it that. It is a group of 3 people who came to do the bidding of Mahama.

The current opposition is fully aware that the initial Ameri deal was horrendous thus there was a need for re-negotiation due to spiralling debt. The current government took the right decision to negotiate with the Mytilenos Group as they were the ones that provided the financing for the T10 project and not Ameri.

It must be noted that without Mytilenos’ financial muscle, Ghana would still have to deal with Ameri and also continue to enrich Mahama. Mytilenos has renegotiated the outstanding debt, provided and still is providing technical expertise and also continues to keep Ghana from Dumsor. If Mytilenos hadn’t stepped in, Dumsor would still be the order of the day. Mytilenos’ only mistake is agreeing to finance Ghana without a sovereign guarantee- basically loaning our government money with no assurance- and still keeping our lights on. They agreed to this because they believed in Ghana and its potential for growth.

It is unfortunate that Mytilineos Group – a company of great repute is being associated with the bandits that are Ameri and being vilified. As usual people with private agendas/side agreements/ corrupted transactions/ agency rights and family ties related to royal and/or presidential families are putting out misleading information to lay blame elsewhere to shift focus from their deeds. They are banking on Ghanaians’ not reading and also hoping that Ghanaians will not conduct a simple Google search of Mytilineos Holdings to find out the calibre of Mytilineos Group, the stature of work they’ve done, their worth, their repute and their role in the global markets.

FACTS OF THE MATTER- THE TRUE COST (Based on the privatization of states assets model)

The government is selling a T10 plant to an investor with international presence and experience. The government is selling an asset valued for $250 million by Price Waterhouse for $300 million making a $50 million profit.

Mytilineos the investor has to operate, maintain, retrofit and invest capital during the life the contract for approximately 20 million per year. The expenditure and taxes combined is more than $300 million during the course of the 15 years.

Mytilineos is charging a 12% interest on the outstanding 20% of the old agreement. It’s important to note that this interest rate is not the anomaly giving the cost of doing business in Ghana. Even the government of Ghana is paying on Bonds with guaranteed averaging between 8-12%. The interest charged by Mytilineos only on the initial capital to buy out the plant, thus buying the liability of the government of Ghana. This totals $348 million making the total loan cost $648 million. The cost per year is 43.2 million.

Mytilineos’ operation cost plus expenditure and capital recovery is $63 million per year and their net profit is $12 million. The loan repayment is $648 over the 15 year period plus expenditure capital) O& M and taxes totalling $300 million thus bringing the total payment over the 15 year period to $948 million.

HOW GHANA BENEFITS

Guaranteed output at site conditions is 250 MW. The output reflects 263MW. 13 MW more than agreed. Under the contract plant performance should be at 90% but currently reaches 96%.

The capacity charge is the lowest at 3.7 kwh and the overall tariff of 11.9 kwh is amongst the cheapest.

Clearly, Mytilineos is not shortchanging Ghana. Some other people are. Let’s wake up, Ghana!

Let’s call the thieves to order. They are staging chaos in local politics to favour known deep pockets.