No need for new private sector participation in ECG – Dubik Mahama

The former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Samuel Dubik Mahama, has dismissed the government’s proposal to privatise the power distribution company.

He argued that private sector participation is already integrated at the metering level and questioned the necessity of further privatisation.

During his vetting on January 13, Energy Minister-Designate John Jinapor reiterated President John Dramani Mahama’s commitment to privatising power distribution in Ghana, citing the need for enhanced efficiency in the energy sector.

In an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Mr Dubik expressed confidence that the sector could thrive if the government builds on the foundation laid during his tenure.

He acknowledged the inefficiencies within ECG while also highlighting areas of operational efficiency.

“I do admit that there are a few inefficiencies in the company, and in the same way, there are a few efficiencies. Now before you do any private sector privatisation what are the benchmarks? Let’s not forget there is already private sector participation in ECG.

“At the metering point under the loss reduction programme. Under this programme, the ECG has moved from its previous position where it used to look for a large sum of money to purchase meters to come and install. That is one thing that I decided to change when I became the Managing Director and I had a discussion with the board, was that looking for cash or capital to purchase meters, for usage, doesn’t make sense.

“Why don’t we get all these metering companies and tell everybody to have a factory in the country? Based on that, we now have about 7 metering companies that have factories in Ghana. What we then did was to give them a locality to install their meters…And that is private sector participation, if you do the math very well, you realise that it saved us a lot. More than almost 50% in how much you now have to borrow and all those administrative costs.”

When asked about the main problem that needs to be solved for ECG, he said, “The first one is forex… you buy the electricity in dollars and you come to sell it in cedis. And you go and look for requisite dollars to go and pay…If you are going to look for USD to pay the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), will the money be enough to pay the whole value chain?