President John Mahama has given the strongest indication of a massive restructuring of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
According to the president, with the current investments in the power sector aimed at resolving the current crisis, the power distribution agencies in the country must be re-positioned to deal with the waste in the system.
His comments come on the back of debates about proposals for the privatization of ECG.
Speaking at the Ghana Journalist Awards on Saturday, President Mahama said government will put in place all measures to ensure sustainable power supply.
“The question we must ask therefore is after we have resolved Dumsor, with all these new thermal power and investments, can we sustain this with the current inefficiencies in downstream distribution when nearly 30% of power is lost from transmission losses, a lot from power theft and plenty from non-collection of revenues?”
“Is ECG a whole state owned enterprise properly positioned in terms of efficiency, logistics and attitudes to ensure optimal collection of revenue to pay for this generation we are putting into this network? It is obvious that the whole power value chain must be reformed. We must have a reliable power system that keeps in tandem with our fast growing appetite and demand for power, we cannot continue a situation where officials whose responsibility it is to ensure efficient revenue collection for their agencies accept money to help clients steal or consume power at a reduced cost,” he added.
President Mahama further reiterated his governments move to solve the current power crisis in the country.
“Within the next several months we expect the completion of projects that will add about 1,800 MW of generation capacity to the national grid,” he said.
Source: citifmonline
