Ghana’s President-elect Mr. John Dramani Mahama has stressed the need for urgent reforms at the country’s largest power distribution company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to ensure reliable power supply and prevent any adverse impact on the nation’s broader financial commitments.
He said, “The energy sector can derail everything that we have done with regard to the debt exchange and with regard to the IMF programme because debt continues to pile up there. ECG’s governance is in a very bad way and so it is making commercial and technical losses of more than 32%.
“No utility company can survive with 32% of technical and commercial losses and continue to be a viable utility…so as quickly as possible, we need to do reforms in the whole electricity value change.”
Mr Mahama made these remarks when religious leaders, under the umbrella of Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, paid him a visit.
According to Mr Mahama, these unsustainable losses are severely damaging the sector and must be addressed immediately to secure the country’s energy future.
He warned that failure to tackle these challenges could undermine progress achieved through the debt exchange programme and the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.
Mr Mahama, who was the flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress for the just-ended general election held on Saturday, 7th December, was declared the president-elect after beating the flag bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Mr Mahama polled 6,328,397 representing 56.55%, while Dr Bawumia secured 4,657,304 representing 41.61%.
Mr Mahama is expected to be sworn in as President on 7th January 2025.
But even before he takes over, Mr Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), in an open letter, made a passionate appeal to Mr Mahama to undertake reforms in the energy sector.
Mr Boakye revealed that the new administration would inherit an energy sector burdened by waste of over GH¢50 billion a year.
Delving into how the challenges in the sector manifest, Mr Boakye pointed out that the energy sector is riddled with agencies and companies that are 4-5 times larger than what was needed to perform the same task eight years ago.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com