Ghana leads the way for Africa in utility database management

Ghana's implementation of the digital utility regulatory management platform has aroused the interest of some five African countries to adopt the Database Management System (DBMS).

In June 2021, the African Development Bank (AfDB) with funding support from the Korea - Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Trust Fund, piloted the first phase of the DBMS initiative for the Commission.

The DBMS enables PURC to gather, analyse and use financial, accounting, technical, operational and commercial data using smart technology to improve its regulatory functions and service delivery

"The Bank has received several requests from other countries, and we are currently implementing similar digitalisation initiatives in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Liberia, and Guinea."

Ms Fasika Eyerusalem, Ghana Country Manager, African Development Bank (AfDB), who disclosed this said the PURC's pioneering digitalisation drive had "become a blueprint for replication across many African Countries"

She said the deployment of the Database Management System (DBMS) under phase one had been a major contributory factor in moving Ghana from seventh position in 2021 to fourth in 2022 on the Electricity Regulatory Index.

She said this when she delivered a speech at the launch of the second phase of the PURC Database Management System in Accra on Tuesday, December 12.

The AfDB Ghana Country Manager disclosed that the Bank was also deploying similar digital platforms for regional regulatory entities, following Ghana's accomplishment in the implementation of the DBMS.

They are the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community, and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

"This is part of a regional electricity regulatory harmonisation initiative across these regions, which is aimed at facilitating regional electricity trade and exchanges as envisaged by the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) initiative of the African Union," she explained.

Ms Eyerusalem noted that the second phase of the DBMS would enable PURC and the Energy Commission to monitorcollect, analyse, and disseminate power sector regulatory data and information effectively and proactively.

Dr Ishmael AckahExecutive Secretary, PURC, said the deployment of a centralised database management system marked an important step towards enhancing transparency and inclusiveness in regulatory systems and solutions to a significant number of regulatory bottlenecks.

He stated that as of December 04, 2023, some 8,950 customers had been served since the DBMS helpdesk became operationalwhile 18,026 complaints out of the 20,810 received through the system had been resolved.

He noted that the system hosted an E-library that held 4GB of data, with a 34GB of PURC data document management system used by staff which also was available on the digital platform.

Dr Ackah expressed confidence that the implementation of the second phase of the DBMS would help overcome the challenges of manual data gathering, and verification, which raised issues of data consistency, misinformation, and transparency.

That, he said would be done through the automated and consistent gathering of data through an integration of the DBMS with systems of utility providers under its regulation.

"This will further improve the Commission's ability to meet its regulatory objectives while protecting the interest of consumers and utility service providers," the PURC Executive Secretary said.

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