Ghana: VRA, NEDCo Workers Hoist Red Flags To Protest Merger

Staffs of the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) have hoisted red flags on their premises in protest at the proposed merger of some of the power sector agencies.

The Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Energy, has submitted a bill to Parliament for consideration.

The bill is seeking to merge VRA and the Bui Power Authority (BPA) into one entity, and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and NEDCo into one entity.

Besides, there will be the establishment of an Independent Thermal Authority to take over the running of all the thermal plants of VRA.

However, this has triggered protests by the staffs of both VRA and NEDCo.

The groups argue that these decisions are not in the best interest of Ghanaians and could have severe consequences for VRA and the nation.

They declared that the proposed changes could undermine the contributions of VRA to the national grid and security.

Speaking to William Asare, Senior Staff Chairman for VRA/NEDCo via telephone, he questioned the rationale behind the proposed plan.

He told this portal that when the issue was highlighted by the media some time ago, they met their management and during the meeting the Board Chairman of NEDCo confirmed that a committee had been put together by the Energy Ministry to discuss the possibility of restructuring the energy sector.

According to him, the Board Chairman vehemently denied knowledge of any bill seeking to merge VRA and NEDCo.

He said the staffs of VRA and NEDCo hoisted red flags at all their offices across the country on Wednesday evening as a first step of many actions they would be taking.

Mr Asare pointed out that there was a good reason why the Act that established VRA mandated it to diversify its energy sources in the future.

He said the idea was for VRA to develop other energy sources because there could be erratic rainfall which could affect power generation from the Akosombo and the Kpong hydroelectric dams.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com