By; Charles Owusu Juanah Esq._
By any serious standard of public policy, constitutional governance, and national interest, the proposed sale or privatization of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is not only misguided; it is dangerous. It is a decision that, if pursued, would amount to a historic abdication of state responsibility over a strategic national asset whose implications transcend economics and strike at the heart of national security, sovereignty, and social stability.
As a lawyer trained to assess not just legality but consequence, and as a citizen committed to Ghana’s long-term national interest, I state without equivocation: the sale of ECG is not a solution, and must never be an option.
ECG Is A Strategic National Security Asset, Not A Commodity
Electricity is not an ordinary service. It is the lifeblood of national defense installations, hospitals, water systems, communications infrastructure, data centers, border security operations, and industrial production. Any nation that relinquishes control of its electricity distribution backbone to private; or worse, foreign-interests exposes itself to unacceptable national security risks.
Who controls power controls:
• Critical security infrastructure
• National communications systems
• Emergency response capability
• Economic continuity in times of crisis
No responsible state cedes such leverage. Advanced nations reform and strengthen public utilities; they do not auction them off under the excuse of inefficiency.
To sell ECG is to externalize sovereign control over a core pillar of state power; a move history will judge harshly.
The Technical Interdependence of ECG, GRIDCo, and VRA: Why Sale Is Structurally Illogical
Practically and technically, ECG does not operate in isolation; it is an integral arm of a unified national power architecture involving the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo). VRA generates electricity, GRIDCo transmits it over the national high-voltage transmission network, and ECG distributes it to final consumers across homes, industries, and institutions. This tripartite relationship is synchronized, system-critical, and deliberately state-coordinated.
To sell ECG; the distribution backbone; while generation and transmission remain sovereign assets would fracture operational coherence, complicate dispatch coordination, weaken grid stability, and inject conflicting commercial incentives into what must remain a technically unified system. Electricity networks are not plug-and-play markets; they are real-time, delicately balanced systems where failures cascade nationally. Introducing a profit-maximizing private owner into ECG would distort cost recovery, trigger tariff and payment disputes across the value chain, expose the state to perpetual renegotiations, and increase litigation risks between ECG, GRIDCo, and VRA.
A policy option that technically destabilizes the national grid, undermines system integrity, and complicates power sector coordination should not even rise to the level of national debate. It should be dismissed at conception.
ECG Is A Revenue-Generating “Cash Cow,” Not A Liability
It is intellectually dishonest to describe ECG as inherently unviable. ECG is, in fact, one of the most lucrative public enterprises in Ghana by design. With millions of customers nationwide, its revenue potential is vast and continuous.
The problem is not ECG.
The problem is mismanagement, political interference, weak accountability, and poor leadership culture.
Selling a revenue-generating public asset because it is poorly managed is akin to selling a fertile farm because the farmer is incompetent. The rational response is to change the farmer; not sell the land.
Once sold:
• Revenue flows permanently out of public hands
• The state loses long-term fiscal leverage
• Tariff increases become inevitable and profit-driven
• Public interest becomes secondary to shareholder interest
This is not reform. It is surrender.
Privatization Will Not Solve Inefficiency; It Will Compound It
The seductive myth that privatization automatically brings efficiency has been disproven repeatedly across Africa and beyond. Private monopolies, especially in utility sectors, often:
• Prioritize profit over service delivery
• Reduce investment in rural and low-income areas
• Increase tariffs without commensurate improvement in quality
• Cut jobs, worsening unemployment and social pressure
Electricity is a natural monopoly. Handing it to private actors merely replaces public inefficiency with private exploitation; while stripping the state of corrective power.
Sustainable Development Demands Reform, Not the Disposal of Strategic Utilities
From a holistic sustainable development standpoint; economic, social, and environmental; the sale of ECG is fundamentally incompatible with Ghana’s long-term development aspirations. Sustainable development requires affordable, reliable, and equitable access to electricity to drive industrialization, education, healthcare delivery, digital inclusion, and national productivity. A privatized ECG would logically prioritize high-yield urban and industrial consumers, while rural electrification, low-income households, and long-term grid investments would face neglect unless heavily subsidized by the state; thereby defeating the very justification for privatization.
Furthermore, Ghana’s commitments to renewable energy integration, climate resilience, and universal energy access under the Sustainable Development Goals demand coordinated public planning, not fragmented, profit-driven distribution. Selling ECG mortgages future development space for short-term fiscal optics. True sustainability lies in institutional reform, technological modernization, and accountable public management; not in relinquishing control of the very infrastructure upon which inclusive growth depends.
A Strong Caution To The President And His Officials
Mr. President and respected public officials, history offers leaders few moments where restraint becomes the highest form of leadership. This is one such moment.
Any attempt; direct or indirect; to sell, concession, or materially cede control of ECG will be interpreted by posterity as:
• A failure of imagination
• A collapse of policy courage
• A betrayal of intergenerational responsibility
The solution to mismanagement is governance, not divestiture.
The answer to inefficiency is leadership, not liquidation.
I urge, firmly and respectfully: do not take Ghana down this irreversible path.
Historical Rejection of ECG Privatization: The Record Is Clear, the Verdict Is Settled
The historical record leaves no room for revisionism. Under President John Dramani Mahama, between 2012 and 2016, Ghana entered a US$918 million IMF Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme in April 2015 (2015–2018), which explicitly required structural reforms in the energy sector, including private sector participation, cost recovery, and utility restructuring. It was within this IMF conditionality framework that proposals and policy signals emerged pointing toward the concession or privatization of ECG, provoking strong resistance from organised labour, civil society organisations, and energy policy experts who warned that electricity distribution was being treated as a fiscal adjustment variable rather than a sovereign strategic asset. Public opposition, labour agitations, and political backlash made it politically and socially impossible to proceed beyond exploratory stages.
Again, under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the same idea resurfaced; this time more formally; through the Second Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Ghana Power Compact, signed in August 2014, which made the private sector concession of ECG a core condition for the release of US$498 million in compact funds.
This process culminated in the selection of Power Distribution Services (PDS) as concessionaire, which took over ECG operations on 1 March 2019. Within months, however, serious deficiencies emerged, including the failure to provide valid and irrevocable guarantees as required under the MCC Compact and the Concession Agreement. Following public scrutiny, national security concerns, and institutional due diligence, government was compelled to terminate the PDS concession on 18 July 2019, effectively collapsing the privatization agenda. Notably, this termination was widely welcomed by Ghanaians, labour unions, and policy commentators as a necessary act of state responsibility.
These two clear historical episodes; under both NDC and NPP administrations; establish an undeniable truth: whenever ECG’s sale or concession has been seriously attempted, Ghanaians have rejected it. The unavoidable question, therefore, is this: what materially has changed to suggest the Ghanaian people will now embrace what they have twice resisted? And more troublingly, why are John Mahama and the NDC; having experienced public rejection during their own IMF-governed tenure; now appearing more determined than ever to advance an idea history has already discredited?
Practical, Realistic And Patriotic Solutions To Fix ECG
There are credible, proven alternatives to save ECG without selling it:
1. 7. Conduct a Comprehensive, Independent Power Flow and Revenue Audit Across VRA, GRIDCo, and ECG
As a matter of urgency, government must commission a professional, independent, end-to-end forensic audit of power flows and revenues across the entire electricity value chain; from generation to final billing. This audit must establish, with technical precision, the actual quantum of electricity generated by the Volta River Authority (VRA), the verifiable amount transmitted by GRIDCo, the exact volume received by ECG, and the corresponding revenue ECG generates from selling this power to consumers.
Such an audit is indispensable for several reasons.
a. First, it will separate fact from speculation by providing objective data on technical losses, commercial losses, and systemic leakages at each stage of the value chain.
b. Second, it will identify where inefficiencies truly lie; whether at generation dispatch, transmission losses, distribution theft, billing failures, or revenue collection weaknesses; thereby preventing the politically convenient but intellectually lazy scapegoating of ECG alone.
c. Third, it will restore financial transparency and accountability, allowing policymakers to match revenues to power supplied and to expose any distortions created by poor metering, estimated billing, political interference, or weak enforcement.
Most critically, without such a professional audit, any claim that ECG is “unsustainable” or that privatization is necessary is analytically dishonest and policy-reckless. You cannot responsibly sell, concession, or restructure a national utility without first knowing; empirically and transparently; how much power enters the system, how much is actually delivered, and how much money is legitimately earned or lost. This audit, therefore, is not a bureaucratic exercise; it is the foundation of serious reform, evidence-based decision-making, and national trust. A state that sells assets without first understanding its own balance sheet is not reforming; it is gambling with sovereignty.
2. Install Competent, Independent, and Technocratic Leadership
ECG must be insulated from partisan appointments. Leadership should be merit-based, performance-driven, and contractually accountable with clear KPIs.
3. End Political Interference
Procurement, recruitment, and revenue enforcement must be shielded from political pressure. No utility can function where discipline collapses under politics.
4. Aggressive Revenue Protection and Loss Reduction
• Modernize metering systems
• Eliminate illegal connections
• Prosecute power theft without fear or favor
• Digitize billing and payment enforcement
5. Professional Board Governance
Appoint a strong, independent board with technical, financial, and legal expertise; not political loyalty.
6. Operational Restructuring Without Ownership Loss
Unbundle internal operations for efficiency while retaining state ownership. Performance contracts can be applied internally without privatization.
7. Strategic Public-Private Partnerships (NOT SALE)
Where private expertise is needed, use limited, regulated service contracts, not asset transfers. Ownership must remain with the state.
Conclusion: Reform ECG, DO NOT SELL IT
Nations do not develop by selling their strategic assets. They develop by fixing institutions, enforcing accountability, and building competent leadership systems.
ECG can be fixed.
ECG must be fixed.
But ECG must never be sold.
Anything short of this is not reform; it is retreat.
And Ghana deserves leadership that reforms, not leadership that retreats.
The national interest demands firmness. History demands wisdom. The future demands courage.
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