ISODEC predicts doom over planned ECG concession

The Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC) says no country has done what the government of Ghana is intending to do with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on the same scale.

Government has reached an agreement to offer ECG on concession for 30 years.

So far, about 40 concessionaires including 18 Ghanaian-owned ones are reported to have expressed interest in managing the country’s major power distributor.

But workers of ECG appear to be least enthused about the move.

They have demonstrated their dissatisfaction against the move since Wednesday, August 24.

The demonstration began with a 3-hour-3-day strike and resumed on Friday, September 2 with a sit-down strike, which ended on Monday, September 5.

Speaking on TV3’s Business Focus on Monday, Campaign Coordinator of ISODEC Dr Steve Manteaw said the country should tread cautiously about the planned move.

“There is no country that has done this on the scale Ghana wants to do it,” he said. He warned that: “We are actually about to take a dip into dangerous waters”.

According to him, countries that have done a similar concession have done so within a period of time.

Michael Awuah, Reforms Unit Manager at the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), which is handling the transaction, was emphatic the deal only has to do with ECG, which is only one of the two power distributors in Ghana.