By Daniel Bampoe
A renewed political dispute has emerged over the management of Ghana’s Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA), with Dennis Miracles Aboagye, spokesperson for former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, mounting a detailed defence of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) handling of the fund.
His response follows persistent claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the NPP misapplied ESLA proceeds and improperly collateralised the fund.
The ESLA, formally known as the Energy Sector Levies Act, 2015 (Act 899), was enacted under the first John Mahama administration to consolidate multiple energy-related levies into a single statutory framework.
The law established nine ring-fenced accounts funded through levies on petroleum products and electricity, each designated for specific purposes, including energy debt repayment, road maintenance, price stabilisation, public lighting, rural electrification, energy sector regulation, and subsidies for premix fuel and residual fuel oil.
Additional components, including the Energy Sector Recovery Levy and a sanitation levy, were later introduced to address sector shortfalls and waste management challenges.
According to Miracles Aboagye, while the NDC introduced the ESLA framework, the NPP government that assumed office in 2017 operationalised and expanded it, ensuring compliance with statutory reporting requirements by submitting nine consecutive annual reports to Parliament. Central to the ongoing controversy is the NDC’s claim that the NPP “collateralised” ESLA funds.
He rejects this characterisation, arguing that the Akufo-Addo administration instead implemented a structured financial solution to address a substantial inherited energy sector debt.
He cites an August 2017 independent audit by ESLA PLC, which validated a total liability of approximately US$2.1 billion, owed to domestic banks, fuel suppliers, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), and the Ghana Gas Company. The debt, he maintains, was accumulated prior to the NPP taking office. To resolve the crisis, the government established ESLA PLC as a Special Purpose Vehicle to issue bonds backed by future ESLA receivables, specifically the Energy Debt Recovery Levy.
This process, described as securitisation, enabled the issuance of multiple bond tranches between 2017 and 2020, raising billions of cedis to refinance legacy debts. The programme included a seven-year bond issued in 2017 and fully redeemed in 2024, as well as several ten-year instruments maturing between 2027 and 2030. By 2020, over GH¢8 billion in energy sector obligations had reportedly been refinanced.
Miracles Aboagye insists that all bondholder obligations have since been settled, describing the programme as a successful financial intervention rather than a misuse of public funds.
On the utilisation of ESLA proceeds, the NPP spokesperson argues that all funds collected were applied strictly within the mandates outlined in Act 899.
He references audited Ministry of Finance reports indicating that proceeds supported debt clearance, expansion of electricity access to more than 10,000 communities, consistent transfers to the Ghana Road Fund, nationwide public lighting initiatives, and annual subsidies for fisherfolk and rural industries.
Additional allocations were made to the Energy Commission for regulatory and research functions, as well as to stabilise petroleum prices, particularly during the COVID-19 period.
For 2024, the most recent reporting year cited, total ESLA collections stood at GH¢8.68 billion, of which approximately 75 percent was utilised. Significant portions were allocated to bond servicing through ESLA PLC, addressing energy sector payment shortfalls, and funding sanitation and waste management operations.
Miracles Aboagye further highlights that the NPP amended the ESLA legislation on three occasions—in 2017, 2019, and 2021—to adjust levy rates, enhance inflows, and introduce new components aimed at addressing emerging sector challenges.
He also questions the credibility of the NDC’s criticisms, pointing to what he describes as a lack of a concrete implementation framework at the time the ESLA law was passed in 2015.
According to him, the NPP inherited an energy sector in financial distress, with state-owned utilities unable to meet obligations and no structured mechanism in place to resolve mounting debts.
The NPP’s position, as articulated by Aboagye, is that its administration built the institutional and financial architecture necessary to stabilise the sector, clear legacy debts, and sustain critical energy-related programmes.
He maintains that all actions taken under the ESLA framework are documented in publicly available reports, audited financial statements, and regulatory filings.
