Technical c’ttee identifies 3 options for private participation in ECG’s operation

The Seven-Member Technical Committee inaugurated to explore options for private sector involve­ment in the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), yesterday presented its reports to the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Mr John Abdulai Jinapor.

Highlighting three options to be eval­uated for the Private Sector Participation (PSP) which includes, Entity Concession, where the whole distribution business would be given out to a private concession as one whole concession, Multiple Lease, where distribution across the country be divided into several parts and awarded to the private operators.

Also, Service Franchise, where the private sector will operate the network, the low voltage network from the distribu­tion transformer to deliver services to the homes.

Presenting the reports in Accra, the chairman of the Committee, Mr Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, said the committee had consulted 285 individuals and 35 organisa­tions in the two months period.

He also noted that, the group had identified nine major challenges that were impeding the performance of distribu­tion utilities in the country, adding that, the challenges were categorised into four groups.

“The first group has to do with the administrative setup of ECG especially, and we see problems with governance, management malaise, and procurement problems,” he said.

Additionally, Mr Amissah-Arthur highlighted that, Operational issues were also hindering the performance of ECG distribution function, which included, high losses in both commercialisation and collection, and high losses in terms of technical and unaccounted energy.

Furthermore he indicated that, there was a widespread of customer dissatisfac­tion with the services they were receiving from the distribution utilities across the country.

Similarly, the committee chairman underscored three external challenges contributing to current challenges facing the country in terms of power distribution which were, foreign exchange losses that were incurred from the operations because power was being bought in dollars and then the institutions received money in Cedis.

“There is also a perceived tariff gap be­tween what they should be getting versus what they are getting, and then there are regulatory inconsistencies that are also not helping the situation,” he said.

Mr Jinapor expressed his appreciation and satisfaction with the work done, add­ing that, “this is a very detailed work.”

“The committee has given us three op­tions and in all the options, it’s quite clear that none of them talks about outright sale of ECG and its assets, so with the options, it’s quite obvious that ECG will still remain the asset owner.”

“And then, depending on which one we choose, we will make progress,” he noted.

Touching on the next step, the minis­try, he said would do a position paper and present it to the cabinet for consideration, and approve the option to pursue, follow by establishing a project implementation committee.

“We would also have to get a trans­action advisor, and make this process as transparent and open as possible with emphasis on local content and participa­tion,”he said.

The Minister stressed that, distribution sector incurred a deficit of GH¢1billion on a monthly basis, cascading effect on the rest of the power sector players.

This, he emphasised was important to reform the sector, get private sector participation, improve the system, increase revenue collection, and ensure that there’s an increased overall efficiency.

 BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA

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