Minority Says Privatisation Of ECG Won't Solve Dumsor, Blames Government Ineptitude For Crisis

• The Minority in Parliament says privatising the Electricity Company of Ghana is not the panacea to the country's energy sector woes
• Speaking on behalf of the Minority, Dr Rashid Pelpuo said the energy sector crisis should be blamed on the incompetence of the government to manage the sector
• He said had the government properly managed the sector and taken proactive measures, the sector wouldn't have been burdened with huge debts

The Minority in Parliament says the government’s plan to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana will not solve the country’s power challenges.

The National Democratic Congress says the recent power outages are largely due to the government’s inability to pay independent power producers, which has accumulated large debts.

These debts, the NDC claim, have crippled the energy sector reducing the power output of independent power producers and resulting in the ECG’s low capacity to power the nation.

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A member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, told CitiTV that the government’s mismanagement of the energy sector is the root cause of the issues plaguing the energy sector.

He said had the government been proactive in tackling the debilitating debt crisis that has plagued the energy sector for some time, the Dumsor challenge would not have reemerged.

Dr Pelpuo said privatising ECG would only transfer the debt burden to the private entity, which could exacerbate the situation when the entity becomes overwhelmed.

“So we have a problem, and the heart of the problem is in the governance of this country,” he said.

Government to outsource the billing and collection roles of ECG

His comments come in reaction to the government’s decision to privatise the billing and collection role of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

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The Deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, made this revelation while participating in a panel at the JoyNews national dialogue on the power sector.

According to the deputy minister, the need to outsource the role to a private entity has arisen from the ECG's failure to collect electricity tariffs from consumers efficiently.

He explained that this has led to an imbalance in revenue generation and operational costs, translating into a massive debt of $1.5 billion due to its inability to settle bills for electricity purchased from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in full.

Some have suggested this is the reason behind the erratic power supply Ghanaians have been suffering in recent times.

According to the deputy energy minister, the situation cannot continue, so private companies must be brought in to handle ECG's billing and collection role efficiently.

IES demands the dismissal of NAPO

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YEN.com.gh reported that the Institute of Energy Security (IES) has demanded the immediate dismissal of Energy Minister Dr Opoku Prempeh.

According to the Executive Director of IES, Nana Amoasi VII, Matthew Opoku Prempeh has shown a lack of political will to address the situation.

He has urged the government to find a more competent person to replace the minister immediately.

Source: YEN.com.gh