President Mahama has stressed that private sector participation in Ghana’s power sector is inevitable if the sector is to perform satisfactorily.
According to him, the long term benefits over reduced losses outweigh the immediate concerns militating against such move. The decision to allow the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to take part in the management of Ghana’s power sector has been met with stiff opposition from workers as well as labour unions.
Despite assurances of no job losses, the utility sector workers are defiant with their resistance. But the President is optimistic a private management will promote efficiency. “That’s the way we are looking forward to; to improve efficiency in the distribution so that we are able to pay off those who are generating power.
In an era where we have the Independent Power Producers (IPP), they cannot be treated like the VRA which is a state owned enterprise and therefore borrows to sustain its operations bearing in mind that the state will intervene in settling such debts like we have done recently,” he stated.
The inability of the power distributor (ECG) to retrieve revenue from some consumers due to illegal connections have also led to revenue losses of up to about 25 percent.
President Mahama believes the figure will reduce significantly with the coming on board of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA). The President was speaking at a CEOs breakfast meeting in Accra on Monday.
Organized by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the event offered the President and selected Ghanaian businesses the opportunity to interact and discuss pertinent issues relating to the private sector in Ghana.
Ghana considers selling‘excess’power to Nigeria
Meanwhile Ghana is considering selling off power to neighbouring countries as the country’s production level nears over-generation. By this, the generation is likely to exceed demand. This comes despite Ghana’s 2000 megawatts consumption figure, the second highest in West Africa after Nigeria.
According to President Mahama, the cost of meeting capacity charges in the event of over-generation will make it economically prudent to consider exporting the excess power.
“We will have to speak to Nigeria to accept any excess power from us and I believe that the interconnection of our transmission grids will allow us to give up some power to Nigeria as we go forward…The over-generation will have to continue until it tipper off in 2022,” the President stated.
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