Ghana: Deregulation Of Petroleum Sector Has Rather Increased Fuel Prices–COPEC

Peter Adofo Asante
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Ghana: Deregulation Of Petroleum Sector Has Rather Increased Fuel Prices–COPEC

Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana, a petroleum advocacy group in the Republic of Ghana, Duncan Amoah, has observed that the deregulation of petroleum has rather increased the prices of fuel at the pump.

The Government of Ghana, in June 2015, introduced deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector as part of efforts to reduce the huge debts that deprived the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) of the needed capital for effective and sustainable business operations.

Deregulation is the method of changing an economic system or industry from intensive government regulation to a system that is accessible to all interested oil investors, which is controlled by forces of demand and supply.

Contributing to a discussion on the downstream petroleum sector on an Accra–based Joy News channel, Mr Duncan Amoah said the deregulation has resulted in a high cost of fuel, thereby, bringing hardships on Ghanaians particularly fuel consumers.

“You see, there is something that I am still contemplating whether this whole deregulation exercise is even benefitting the ordinary Ghanaian. So you have two stations, let’s say Duncan and Kudus; Duncan station sells at 5.0, Kudus sells at 6.0, a driver walks to my station and pays 5.0 for fuel; another pays 6.0 for fuel yet they are charging the same fare so where is the benefit?” he quizzed on Thursday.

He recalled that during the era of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, “crude prices sometime in 2007 did hit the roof of 120, 140” but consumers were not asked to pay GHc6 plus for petrol.

He added that the taxes during the former President’s era were reasonable too.

According to Mr Amoah, a lot of considerations did not go into the deregulation exercise, adding that the government just took its hands off the final pricing at the pumps.

“It was just rolled out because the government was tired and was choking on the legacy debt so the most immediate solution was to leave all the marketing companies. You bring your product, you set your prices, if you make losses, I don’t owe you anything,” he stated.

Duncan Amoah said forex would continue to be a problem so far as fuel importation is not managed in the country.

“Those guys would need around 400 million every single month to bring in petroleum products, they would need a dollar, equivalent. So if they are converting all of that to dollars every single month, do you think your cedi will survive? So the cedi will depreciate and when it does, a forex rate has to be done and added to your pump prices,” he explained.

 

 

 

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Uganda: IOCs Making Final Investment Decision On East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline Project

Michael Creg Afful
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International Oil and Gas Companies are going ahead to make their Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Ugandan oil projects following the passage of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) (Special Provisions) Bill 2021, Mr Ali Ssekatawa, the Director Legal and Corporate Affairs at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), has said.  “The EACOP Bill will also enable UNOC (Uganda National Oil Company) to meet its financial obligation as a Joint Venture Partner (JVP) and create a harmonised law for operationalisation of the EACOP in Uganda and Tanzania,” Mr Ssekatawa said. Speaking to over 30 editors from both the traditional and new media at a workshop, Mr Ssekatawa said the oil companies are issuing contracts for the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) work packages and the site clearance works for the Tilenga project industrial area that will host the Central Processing Facility (CPF) and base camps. “What remains to fully spur the development phase into motion is passing of the enabling legislation for the EACOP,” he said. Explaining why UNOC wanted to spend at the source instead of waiting for Parliament’s budget approval, Mr Ssekatawa said UNOC was a company incorporated under the Company Act in 2013 and, therefore, could not operate like any other government department. “What the Civil Society is demanding is to have UNOC operate like a Corporation, Agency or Authority of Government. This cannot be the case because UNOC is a company like any other private entity doing business,” Mr Ssekatawa clarified. Mr Ssekatawa added that “the Bill will also enable UNOC to pay its share of the transportation fees without attracting penalties and all National Oil Companies (NOCs) operate similarly and not as statutory agencies.” The UNOC was established as a commercial entity to do business on behalf of the Government of Uganda. However, this can only be achieved once the EACOP Bill is passed with the current clauses without amending them.
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Ms Gloria Sebikari, the Manager of Corporate Affairs at the PAU, said the editors’ training workshop was necessitated by the need to equip them with the requisite knowledge on the oil and gas sector. “The oil and gas sector has transitioned to the development and production phase. This, therefore, requires you as gatekeepers to be ahead of the people you supervise and ensure that objective and factual information is shared on your platforms,” Ms Sebikari said. The editors appreciated the workshop and appealed for more engagements to keep abreast with the activities taking place in the sector.     Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

 

Nigeria: Former TCN CEO Named Interim Managing Director Of AEDC

Michael Creg Afful
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A former Chief Executive Officer of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Eng. S. Akinwumi Bada, has been appointed as the interim Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC). His appointment follows the dismissal of the management earlier this week by President Muhammadu Bihari. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced the appointment in a statement issued by Amina Tukur Othman, Head of Public Communications, BPE, on Thursday, December 9, 2021. The statement indicated that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the power sector regulator, has approved the appointment of the interim management team. Other members of the team are Sani Usman as Interim Chief Business Officer, and Babajide Ibironke as Interim Chief Finance Officer, Donald Etim as Interim Chief Marketing Officer, and Femi Zachaeus as Interim Chief Technical Officer. NERC and BPE had sacked the former management team of the AEDC and approved the appointment of an interim team to manage the power distribution company on the basis of legal processes arising from the failure of the core investor to meet its obligations to a lender. Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, in approving the appointments, said the development is in pursuance of the earlier fit and proper review of your (BPE’s) pool of nominees and in the context of business continuity frame work of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)”. “NERC and BPE, in a joint statement on Wednesday, signed by Sanusi Garba and Alex Okoh, Director General of BPE, stated that there had been an ongoing dispute amongst competing factions of AEDC’s majority shareholder/core investor KANN Utility Company Limited (KANN). “The dispute eventually spilled over with the lender that provided the acquisition loan to KANN for the acquisition of majority shares during the privatisation exercise in 2013, over KANN’s inability to service its debt to the bank. “The United Bank for Africa (UBA) had acted as Mandated Lead Arranger, underwriting the entire facility of US$ 122 million (about N20 billion) for KANN Utilities acquisition of AEDC.” BPE said that during the course of the intractable crisis, AEDC not only struggled to meet its obligations to the market under the terms and conditions of its licence but was also unable to meet its obligations to key stakeholders in the organisation, including staff. This, it said, culminated in the industrial action by members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE). “Eventually, this resulted in a total service disruption on Dec. 6, for over 14 hours in AEDC’s network area. “The provision of electricity supply in AEDC’s network area was only restored after the intervention of the Minister of Power, NERC and BPE following an agreement with the union on the terms for the suspension of the industrial action on Dec. 6. “The public should note that arising from KANN’s inability to service its loan and the ensuing dispute over the servicing of the loan from UBA PLC, the lender exercised its rights by appointing a Receiver/Manager over KANN. “Stakeholders, including NERC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the BPE had on several times worked to broker an amicable resolution between the contending parties.” The statement added that the protracted resolution of the dispute exacerbated the state of affairs at AEDC, resulting in an industrial action and a total blackout in the service area for over 14 hours. It said that it then became apparent that decisive steps were required to address the matter and BPE agreed with the lender’s request to exercise its powers as Receiver/Manager over KANN by exercising its powers over the 60 per cent equity in AEDC as a means to recovering the acquisition loan granted by the bank. “The action to appoint an interim team to manage AEDC was not done on the basis of a directive from the Federal Government but on the basis of legal processes arising from the failure of the core investor in AEDC to meet its obligations to a lender. “The receiver/manager has agreed to the appointment of an interim management team in conjunction with BPE as part of measures designed to address business failure events and ensure continuity of service to end-use customers in the service area.” Profile of Bada Akinwumi Engr. S. A. Bada is the CEO of Szotyola Energy International Services He holds M. Sc. Telecommunications Engineering from Technical University of Budapest, Hungary He joined the services of the National Electric Power Authority (now Power Holding Company of Nigeria) in Kaduna, Nigeria in 1984 as a member of the first group of professional telecommunications engineers recruited into the company. He rose to the position of Assistant General Manager (Communications) – the first in NEPA – in 1999 and was deployed to the National Control Centre of the power utility. In this capacity, he was head of the telecommunications maintenance group of the utility. The group consisted of telecommunications and SCADA which is a supervisory, monitoring and controlling tool for grid stability and reliability. He was later redeployed to the Operations Sector of the utility at Corporate Headquarters. Upon promotion to General Manager in 2002, he was transferred to the Transmission Sector of the utility. There he was saddled with the following responsibilities amongst others: Setting off  and compliance monitoring of utility-wide grid operational standards; Grid telecommunications, System Control And Data Acquisition/Energy Management System (SCADA/EMS). He later got promoted to the position of Executive Director (System Operations), in which capacity he functioned as the System Operator of the Nigerian National Electricity Grid. He participated actively in the development of the Grid Code of the Nigerian Electricity Grid. As Executive Director, he was seconded to the Presidency in 2010 and appointed as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Power Transmission and System Operations. In this capacity, he worked with the Presidential Task Force on Power as Senior Performance Monitor (Transmission and System Operations) till 2011 when he was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Transmission Company of Nigeria         Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Ghana: GRIDCo Ready To Assist Sierra Leone To Implement Power Compact-Ebenezer Essienyi

Michael Creg Afful
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Ghana’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, has expressed readiness to assist Sierra Leone to transform its power sector. The Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, Ing Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi said this when the Vice President of Sierra Leone, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, who is on an official visit to Ghana, led a delegation to tour the Ghana Grid Company in Tema on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. He said Ghana is willing to assist Sierra Leone in its power sector “so that you don’t make the mistakes we have gone through in our power sector. “We are ready to guide you in any aspect of our work. The traps that we fell in, what we learnt and what is it we must do going forward,” he said. Ing Kofi Essienyi said Ghana has successfully implemented two Power Compacts and, therefore, has learnt lessons that she is ready to share. GRIDCo operates two major transmission line systems, ie, 161 kV and 330 kV covering about 6500 kilometres across the West African nation. Sierra Leone, currently, has 31 per cent electricity access as compared to Ghana’s 86 per cent. Ing Kofi Essienyi urged Sierra Leone not to hesitate to call on GRIDCo, saying: “We will gladly come and assist your team.” On his part, the Vice President of Sierra Leone H. E. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said his visit to Ghana was to learn from the excellent work of Ghana Grid Company and also to share their experiences in their power sector.
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He said in 2020, Sierra Leone qualified for power compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and since Ghana had already implemented two successful power compacts, there was the need to visit Ghana to learn from them. “We’re here to learn from the good work and also to take cognizance of the challenges and how you overcame them,” he stated.   Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Iceland Cuts Electricity To Crypto Miners Amid Power Crunch

Michael Creg Afful
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Due to low hydropower generation, Iceland has seen a shortage of electricity supply in recent days to the point where its biggest utility curtailed power to some industrial activities, data centers, and cryptocurrency mining. Iceland generates nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, with hydropower generation accounting for around 73 percent of power supply and geothermal power representing the other 27 percent of electricity generation. This week, however, low levels of hydro reservoirs, a fault at one power station, and a delay in obtaining electricity from a third-party provider led to the reduction—effective immediately—of electricity to data centers, aluminum smelters, and fish meal factories, the national power company of Iceland, Landsvirkjun, said in a statement on Tuesday. Landsvirkjun is also rejecting all requests from new customers for cryptocurrency mining, the company added. Apart from the low hydro levels and issues at a power plant, record electricity demand in recent weeks has also played a part in the decision to reduce supply to industrial customers and data centers, Tinna Traustadottir, executive vice president of sales and customer service at Landsvirkjun, told Bloomberg. Crypto mining operations are large in Iceland, where 100 percent of the electricity comes from hydro or geothermal power. A total of 8 percent of all Bitcoins have been mined in Iceland, according to the Icelandic Blockchain Foundation cited by DW. But the large power consumption of cryptocurrency mining—although it could be considered ‘green’ in Iceland because of the 100-percent renewable electricity supply—is further straining the grid when demand is high and hydro resource levels low, as is the case this week.   Iceland is not the only country to reduce power for crypto activities. Kazakhstan, for example, has struggled with an energy crunch and has recently started to ration electricity to the country’s biggest consumers, likely targeting cryptocurrency mining operations.        Source: Oilprice.com

Ghana: Stop Interfering In Petroleum Downstream Industry-AOMC To Gov’t

Michael Creg Afful
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Oil Marketing Companies in the Republic of Ghana are accusing the government of interfering in the petroleum downstream business which is highly deregulated. According to the OMCs, the government’s interference in the petroleum downstream is dangerous, noting that it threatens the survival of OMCs /LPG Marketing Companies in the industry with the loss of jobs for the teeming masses being employed, accumulation of debts /levies and their eventual demise. The accusation by the OMCs follows a purported directive issued by President Akufo-Addo to GOIL Company Ltd, an indigenous and leading OMC in the Republic of Ghana, to reduce fuel prices even though the industry is deregulated. In a letter signed by Kwaku Agyemang-Duah, industry coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies to the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the 175 OMCs asked the government to immediately withdraw the directive to GOIL and desist from ever interfering in the market in one way or the other if the current pricing regime and deregulation would succeed. They said the government cannot be a player and referee in a field that allows industries to operate the business more freely, make decisions efficiently and remove corporate restrictions.
Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Duah, Chief Executive Officer of Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Republic of Ghana
“The State, which is a major shareholder of GOIL, has directed GOIL, a major downstream player, to reduce its ex-pump prices of fuel. If the foregoing is true, it is indeed unfortunate, dangerous as well as stressful especially given the current deregulation regime,” it stated. It added that ‘compelling’ GOIL to reduce its fuel prices would consequently not make the company efficient and end up as another ‘TOR spectacle’. “The cumulative effects are threatening the survival of OMCs/LPGMCs in the industry, with loss of jobs for the teeming masses being employed, accumulation of debts/levies and their eventual demise. “We of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMC) on behalf of the silent majority of 175 OMCs /LPGMCs hereby request that: Government withdraws the directive to GOIL and desists from ever interfering in the market in one way or the other if the deregulation regime is to succeed. Secondly, if Government thinks that the foregoing (deregulation regime) cannot be adhered to, we must, as a matter of urgency, halt the deregulation process and revert to the regulatory regime,’’ the letter said.   Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Uganda Tops AfDB’s Electricity Regulatory Index For Fourth Consecutive Year

Michael Creg Afful
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Uganda Tops AfDB’s Electricity Regulatory Index For Fourth Consecutive Year
For the fourth consecutive year, Uganda’s electricity sector is Africa’s best regulated across a number of key metrics, according to the African Development Bank’s 2021 Electricity Regulatory Index. Other strong performers include East African neighbours, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Namibia and Egypt. The 2021 Electricity Regulatory Index, an annual report, covered 43 countries, up from 36 in the previous edition, and assessed their impact on the performance of their electricity sectors. The index covered 3 countries in the North Africa region; 14 in West Africa; 6 in Central Africa; 7 in East Africa; and 13 in the Southern Africa region. “The unprecedented participation of so many countries shows the commitment to strengthen the countries’ regulatory environment with a view to improving the performance of the respective electricity sectors,” said Dr. Kevin Kariuki, the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth. Among the 2021 report’s key highlights are that regulatory independence is one sub-indicator where African countries have room to improve: in 93% of sampled countries, governments, and stakeholders exercise influence over regulatory authorities. In terms of regulatory substance, participating countries scored lowest on adequacy of their tariff setting and frameworks, as well as licensing frameworks when compared with best practice. According to the report, the average performance on economic regulation has continued to decline since 2018. A third of countries surveyed indicated they lack methodologies to determine tariffs; another 40% rely on tariff methodologies that do not include key attributes such as automatic tariff adjustment and tariff indexation mechanisms and schedule for major tariff reviews. Wale Shonibare, African Development Bank Director for Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation, commended the top-performing country.  “Uganda topping the rankings consecutively for four years comes as no surprise to many, as the regulator spends significant time on consultation and analysis, including regulatory impact assessments of key interventions and follow-through to ensure full implementation,” he said. Outside stakeholders also viewed the report’s results positively. Eng. Abel Didier Tella, Director General of the Association of Power Utilities of Africa, said, “It is interesting that the utilities in most of the top-performing countries in the Electricity Regulatory Index are listed on their national stock exchanges, which requires compliance with transparency in information sharing and good governance practice.” Since its launch in 2018, the Electricity Regulatory Index has highlighted aspects of electricity regulation that need reform, identified appropriate areas for intervention, and encouraged stakeholders to be proactive in addressing challenges. Since then, the index has been widely adopted by regulators and other stakeholders across the continent as a benchmark for the regulatory environment as well as for ongoing reforms.           Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Ghana: GOIL Rejects AOMC Claims Of Gov’t Interference & Suspends Membership

Michael Creg Afful
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Ghana’s leading indigenous oil marketing company, GOIL Company Ltd has rejected the claim by the association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMC) that it has been directed by the government to reduce fuel prices at the pump. GOIL reminded the Association that it is a listed company with a constituted board of directors and management and takes decisions based on prudent commercial principles. Aside from this, GOIL said it is guided by the fact that the company is owned by Ghanaians and that has always influenced their pricing policy. It would be recalled that on November 23, 2021, GOIL reduced its pump prices by 14 pesewas from GHS6.99 per litre to GHS 6.85 per litre for both Super XP (petrol) and diesel. Energynewsafrica.com’s had information last week that the company planned to cushion Ghanaians further and was considering announcing reduction in fuel prices on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. However, on Monday, some radio stations reported that the government had directed GOIL to reduce fuel prices. This claim sparked controversy among Oil Marketing Companies. In a statement signed by Group CEO and Managing Director of GOIL Company Ltd, Kwame Osei Prempeh, the company said it decided to sacrifice part of its margin to benefit its cherished customers and Ghanaians because of the agitations by transport operators in the country. GOIL said it is surprising that the AOMC found its voice and the audacity to make such a claim and challenge them to substantiate it. The company said the action by the AOMC amounts to gross disrespect and contempt, therefore, has decided to suspend its membership. “GOIL is a responsible company fully aware of the deregulated environment in which we operate. The allegation that government is interfering in the industry is unfounded and baseless. GOIL has the right as any other OMC to determine prices, the statement said.     Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Ghana: ECG Throws Krobo Residents In Darkness As It Cuts Power Supply To Kroboland

Michael Creg Afful
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The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has cut electricity supply to Yilo and Manya Krobo Municipalities in eastern Ghana. This has left the area without a power supply for three days now. According to a release issued by the ECG, it said it came to their attention that parts of the area were experiencing outages. The ECG said its investigations revealed that some unscrupulous persons had transferred customers from a transformer with a phase of the problem to adjacent transformers, thereby, overloading them and destroying several transformers within the communities. The ECG condemned the total hijack of its network, saying it is unacceptable. “Given the ongoing interference in our network as a result of the scaling down of our operations in the Krobo area which was necessitated by the threat to our staff, ECG has decided to shut down the feeders at the Bulk Supply Point (BSP) directly feeding the communities to protect our network, lives and properties of innocent customers and the general public within the Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo communities,” ECG said. Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Global Oil Scarcity Is On The Horizon- Halliburton CEO

Michael Creg Afful
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The lack of investments into the oil industry is steering the world toward scarcity, one of the world’s largest oilfield service providers warned on Monday. A global oil scarcity is on the horizon, the U.S. oilfield service provider said, after seven years of underinvestment after oil prices slide from their $100 heyday in 2014, Bloomberg reported. “For the first time in a long time, we’ll see a buyer looking for a barrel of oil as opposed to a barrel of oil looking for a buyer,” Haliburton’s CEO Jeff Miller cautioned. Miller added that the Houston-based service provider has seen crude explorers cut their spending by roughly half compared with historical norms, and the hired hands from the oil patch have been impacted by rising costs. Meanwhile, oil producers have taken this opportunity to return oilfield profits to their shareholders instead of reinvesting into drilling. It is this latter issue that will inevitably cause oil a tight market in the future, according to Miller. But it’s more than just investment that could create an oil scarcity. Only a week ago, oil firms were said to be facing a workforce crunch as the renewables industry is looking rather fetching. According to a survey conducted by Oilandgasjobsearch.com, more than half of all oil workers are looking to make a move to renewables. About 43% of all oil and gas workers have a desire to leave the industry altogether within the next five years. Halliburton last week was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America—which includes the top 10% most sustainable companies in each industry based on ESG criteria. Using this criteria, Halliburton—present in over 70 countries–ranked in the 90th percentile among its peers.     Source:Oilprice.com

Ghana: ECG Locks Somanya District Office Over Threats By Krobo Youth Group

Michael Creg Afful
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Ghana: ECG Locks Somanya District Office Over Threats By Krobo Youth Group
Ghana’s southern electricity distribution company, ECG, has closed down its district office in Somanya which serves residents of  Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities in the eastern part of the West African nation. The decision follows recent agitations by the youth group in the area and threats to the lives of the staff of ECG. ECG explained that the decision was arrived at to protect the lives of its staff since they are being threatened by the youth in the area. According to ECG, a new district office at Juapong will serve residents of Yilo and Manya Krobo Municipalities. It would be recalled that on Monday, November 22, 2021, over 7000 residents in Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities hit the streets to protest against the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). The protesters, who were clad in red attire, marched through the principal streets to demand an immediate cessation of electricity supply from ECG to the areas. The protesters rather wanted the country’s largest state power generation company, VRA, to supply electricity to their areas, as according to them, ECG has been unfair in dealing with them. They claim their ancestors were promised free electricity during the construction of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam. However, they have not to be able to substantiate their claim when challenged by both the power generation companies, Volta River Authority and Electricity Company of Ghana. Addressing a press conference in Tema on Monday, December 6, 2021, the Tema General Manager for ECG, Ing. Emmanuel Akinie accused the youth groups of bad faith since there has been extensive engagement to resolve issues regarding electricity bills. “After all these efforts and final resolution of the impasse as evidenced by the preparation and signing of the report, the youth groups continued organizing town meetings and inciting the public against payment of electricity bills,” Ing Akini stated. He said management cannot risk the lives of any of their hardworking staff in such an unsafe environment. “Owing to the very serious security threats against the ECG staff in parts of Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo municipalities, reliability of power supply in that enclave will be dependent on the availability of full police escort for ECG’s engineers to attend to power supply challenges.” He said ECG would continue to provide quality, safe and reliable electricity services to the other parts of the ECG district where the security of staff and installations are guaranteed. He said ECG has officially requested the Inspector General of Police and all National Security agencies to provide adequate security for all staff of  ECG and all of ECG’s installations and facilities within the affected enclave.   Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Nigeria: Buhari Sacks Management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Over Workers’ Strike

Michael Creg Afful
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Nigeria: Buhari Sacks Management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Over Workers’ Strike
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed top management of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) over a strike action by the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE). The action by the workers left areas serviced by the AEDC without power for hours on Monday. The areas serviced by the company are the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states. The workers were protesting over unpaid allowances, salaries and unremitted pension deductions. In a statement released by Ofem Uket, media aide of the Minister of State for Power, on Tuesday, it said the President has approved a new interim governing board to oversee the day-to-day operations of the company. “The presidential directives as conveyed also directed the Bureau of Public Enterprises to set up a new management team of the AEDC,” the statement said. “In a memorandum of understanding (MOU) jointly signed by the Minister of State Power, Goddy Jedy Agba, the chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sanusi Garba, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Alex Okoli, Comrade Joe Ajaero on behalf of the union, the Federal Government ordered the suspension of the strike [and asked to] given 21 days within which the outstanding emoluments and entitlements of staff will be paid.”   Source: https://energynewsafrica.com

Ghana: ECG Opens New District Office In Juapong

Inusah Musah
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The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has opened a new district office in Juapong in the North Tongu District in the Volta Region. The new fully-fledged district office will cater for customers in seven political districts namely Ho West, Asuogyaman, North Tongu, Shai Osudoku, Lower Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo and Okere. The services which will be available in the new Juapong office include payment of electricity bills; reporting of electricity faults; reporting of illegal connections; reconciliation of billing anomalies; provision of customer educational material on ECG’s operations; tips on efficient uses of electricity; applications for new service connections; applications for separate meter connections, general enquiries about electricity issues, and other related services. Speaking at the commissioning of the district office, the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu said: “Our well-trained and dedicated staff are on hand to serve customers in the aforementioned areas. “With the opening of this District Office today, we have created the necessary convenience for our customers who, hitherto, had to travel long distances to Somanya to access ECG’s services,” he explained. He added that the best of ECG’s services have been brought right to Juapong and its environs. Mr Agyeman-Budu explained that ECG has not relocated the Krobo District office from Somanya to Juapong because of the impasse between them and the youth groups in Yilo and Manya Krobo area. He made a passionate appeal to all customers to pay their bills promptly and in full. The Tema General Manager of ECG, Ing. Emmanuel Akinie said due to ECG’s mission of becoming a customer-focused energy service provider by 2024, it is believed that bringing services closer to customers would help ease travel time for them, as well as travel time on the company’s side especially where faults are concerned, thereby, creating a much more enabling working relationship between ECG and its customers to be served by the District Office.
Ing. Emmanuel Akinie, Tema General Manager for ECG
He mentioned that areas such as Juapong, Volo, Vume, Dorfor Adidome, Torgome, Akwamufie, Apegusu, Mpakadan, Asikuma, Anum, Boso, Kissiflui Norvisi, Kpota and surrounding areas would now have easier accessibility when it comes to transacting business with ECG. “We are committed to providing convenience in all our service delivery as well as providing value-added services to meet the expectations of our customers. Through strategic decisions, we hope to work towards these expectations, our mission and vision,” he said.   Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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