Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, says he supports Otumfuo’s call to divest power distributors Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Grid Company, due to politicisation of the energy sector.

This comes after the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to confront the realities of the economic landscape and focus on implementing policies that stimulate the growth of industries, thereby fostering job creation and attracting increased investment.

In addition to his call for policy prioritisation, the Asantehene proposed divesting public enterprises such as the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) by engaging the private sector.

According to Dr. Manteaw, Ghana is where it is because of excessive politicisation of the energy sector, which can be seen in the way ECG has responded to calls for a load-shedding schedule.

“If they respond to that call positively, it would mean an admission that there is dumsor which then hands over a political advantage or equalisation to the opposition party because the current government has played politics with the sector.”

“Not recently, he indicated that he leaves the legacy of dumsor to Mahama and that there will be no dumsor under his reign. But how does the ECG Managing Director who is appointed by the president turn round to act in ways that admit that there is dumsor?”

According to the co-chair of GHEITI, recent interrogations by the parliament has revealed that there is a generation gap due to insufficient funding for fuel procurement.

Dr Manteaw noted that this is not the first time the country has faced such challenges, citing a similar warning from the World Bank in 2014.

“This takes us to the point of déjà vu. In 2014 the World Bank cautioned us of an imminent dumsor because of the government’s inability to raise funds to procure fuel. We are here again. It therefore beggars the question as to how we finance our electricity company,” he said.

Dr. Manteaw commended the current management of ECG for their efforts to address these issues.

He praised the Managing Director of ECG for the boldness in forming a revenue taskforce to target state institutions that owed money to the power company.

“They also digitalised their system because there was a lot of corruption with the connivance of ECG staff. They have also dealt with the meter shortages in the country and also lack of standardisation of these meters which actually also provided an opportunity for rent-seeking.”

Dr. Manteaw stated that, although the ECG has done some remarkable things, the Managing Director stands vilified because he has not been able to openly admit that there are power outages because of the politics that is being played in the sector.

Background

Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has called on the Akufo-Addo government to confront the realities of the economic landscape and focus on implementing policies that stimulate the growth of industries, thereby fostering job creation and attracting increased investment.

In addition to his call for policy prioritisation, the Asantehene proposed divesting public enterprises such as the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) by engaging the private sector.

He emphasised that involving private entities would ensure vital financial investments and the injection of fresh ideas, competencies, and resources necessary for their sustainability.

According to the revered king, without such reforms, both the government and the Ghanaian populace would fail to reap the benefits of these state-owned enterprises.