Privatising ECG not panacea - ISODEC

The Government of Ghana has been told to do a proper diagnosis of the challenges confronting the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to arrive at better options at dealing with those challenges.

Dr Steve Manteaw, Campaign Coordinator for the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), has said privatisation of the state power distributor, as suggested by President John Dramani Mahama, is not the solution for the problems confronting ECG.

Mr Mahama, on Tuesday June 7, argued that just as the Government of Ghana, a few years ago, deregulated the telecommunication industry to allow private sector participation, a move which saw Vodafone controlling 70 per cent shares in state-owned Ghana Telecom because it was not working effectively, ECG would need to be privatised in order to make it more efficient.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2016 edition of African ICT and Mobile Expo, MOBEX, on Tuesday June 7, Mr Mahama said: “Those were some of the chimeras that were pulled out of the box because we were going to privatise and allow private participation. Today, I can see a similar development of the inefficient downstream distribution system on the electricity and power front. We are trying to do reforms and those chimeras are being drawn out.”

But Dr Manteaw, reacting to comments made by President Mahama, said: “For me, the challenge or the solution is not really about privatisation…”

In different media interviews, Dr Manteaw said: “We need to do a proper diagnosis of the problem facing ECG and find a solution and not to quickly jump at privatisation as an option.”