We need to think carefully in privatising ECG; it’s not the only option – Prof. Kpessa-Whyte

Director General of State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), Professor Michael Kpessa-Whyte is against the proposed privatisation of the state power distributor, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

In an interview on TV3’s Hot Issues, Sunday, April 6, 2025, he said although SIGA as an institution has not taken a stance on the privatization of ECG yet, it is his personal view that ECG need not to be privatised.

“At the personal level I don’t think ECG should be privatised,” he stated.

The matter of privatizing ECG has been proposed due to the financial mismanagement and procurement challenges that the company has recorded in recent times.

However, Prof Kpessa-Whyte says a much deeper analysis is needed as ECG is not just like any institution but a strategic institution which decision affects every household and businesses in the country.

“We also need to think carefully that privatisation is not the only option. Within the framework of new public management, there are large number of tools and ideas that we can pick to improve the work of ECG,” he explained.

He further suggested some measures including out sourcing or out contracting to allow government to retain its full assets and control but only give out an aspect of its operations to private entities.

“We can for instance do contracting out which simply means that is there an aspect of the operations of the ECG that we can contract out so that it can inject some efficiency into the operation of ECG or an aspect of ECG to outsource to get things done differently to get the results that we want,” he proposed.

The Technical Committee inaugurated to work out modalities for private sector participation in the operation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company, NEDCo has submitted its report to the Energy Minister, John Jinapor.

The Committee in its report made three recommendations to the Minister with respect to the privatization of ECG and NEDCo.

The first option the Committee suggested is for ECG to be made an outright concession. This option proposes that ECG’s whole distribution business be given to private concession, a move similar the PDS deal.

The Committee also proposed for multiple lease such that ECG be demarcated into various sections – four or five units so that each section is awarded to a private a company to lead the operations.

The third option is for a service franchise to allow private sector take care of low voltage areas and deliver service to the homes of customers. This model focuses on the customer experience and how to improve the service to the customer to make sure that the connections and everything are up to speed.

The post We need to think carefully in privatising ECG; it’s not the only option – Prof. Kpessa-Whyte first appeared on 3News.

Read Full Story