2021 budget: Provide an alternative to failed PDS deal – ACEP to government

The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye is calling on the government to provide an alternative to the failed Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal rather than reiterating the same issue in the budget.

The Akufo-Addo administration’s efforts to review the PDS deal upon assuming of power was seen to have resulted in a better deal than what the previous Mahama government left behind.

“We have seen time and again in the budget and its presentation by the Finance Minister that they were going to come up with an alternative to the PDS agreement that got burst, but it never happened. What is this budget going to say to ensure that we can distribute electricity efficiently for people to pay for the power they consume? It is much more critical today than ever for us to have a clear direction on what we want to do with the distribution of electricity,” he said.

In an interview with CitiNews monitored by GhanaWeb, Benjamin Boakye believes that the deal must be withdrawn even though the President stated in the recent State of The Nation Address (SONA) that the controversial Agyapa deal will be coming back to Parliament for review.

“The Agyapa transaction, I am just hoping that the Finance Ministry will announce that it is no longer going ahead or it wants to discuss how we can optimize our resources not just by looking at the financial side but looking at the industry, Investment attraction, and policy evolution of the sector because those are important to consider not just myopic revenue stream,” he added.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Boakye said the budget must give an alternative to the PDS deal as promised earlier, to help address the current challenges facing Ghana’s energy sector, especially with the distribution of power.