Cabinet Approves Merger Of GRIDCo, ECG, NEDCo, Others

– Energy Expert Discloses, Says VRA & Bui Power To Become One Entity 

The Chairman of the manifesto sub-committee on Energy for Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s 2024 Campaign, has disclosed a vital Cabinet decision of President of Akufo-Addo administration, regarding the power sector.

Mr Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, an energy expert, said Cabinet has approved a merger of some state-owned entities in the power sector to guarantee efficiency and possible private sector participation.

The entities, include the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Bui Power Authority, Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo)and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

“There is a lot going on…NEDCo and ECG, there is a cabinet approval for the two to be merged. Then there is also a cabinet approval for VRA hydro and Bui [Power] Authority to become one. So, you’re going to have Bui Authority and VRA as one entity”.

“And we are going to have ECG and NEDCo as one entity and these are things that the government has given a cabinet approval for these processes to go ahead”, Mr Poku disclosed over the weekend.

According to him, necessary discussions on the merger, has been finalized by Cabinet, reason he was making it public.

Speaking on TV3’s ‘Key Points’news analysis programme on Saturday, April 20, the failed presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) gave cave at that, the privatization of GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA) cannot be “a wholesale of those entities” because of the technical and the monopoly role they play.

“The government has stripped the VRA thermal as a separate entity,” he said, adding that when all the parliamentary processes are done, there will be a single entity representing Bui Power Authority and Volta River Authority.

The revelation comes in the wake of a seemingly power supply challenges in most parts of the country and incessant calls for the ECG to release load shedding time table for customers to plan their daily routines.

Otumfuo speaks

It also comes at the time Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is calling on the government to allow participation of the private sector in the running of some of these entities.

“VRA and others are government establishments. Let’s get up and diversify into the private sector and then we inject money in them, get the right people to do it. GRIDCo and others are all for private sector let give them the money, get the qualified people, diverse government from it and let them do it. Either than that the Electricity Company is in a situation we don’t know but that also must be diversify and given to the private sector.

Why are we still holding and we don’t have the money? We are not even able to collect all the taxes that we want, we are going to IMF or money and all those things. We are hanging on to industries that we cannot maintain. Look, it is about time we face reality and decide on what government should be doing and the private sector should be doing. This is a testimony of a private sector”, the revered Chief said last week.

Streamline Roles

The energy guru, who has endorsed the suggestion by the Asantehene, further indicated that the government must streamline the roles of an entity like the GRIDCo. He argued that, this would allow for some form of privatisation, but not necessarily “selling them 100 percent.”

“GRIDCo carries a dual function, there is the function of being the transmission company but also plays a role which is more like a market administrator which is the dispatch of power and also looking at all these other auxiliary technical willing that they do.

“These things need to be streamlined and if you are able to take some of these powers away from some of these institutions, it will be okay to privatise some of them, not necessarily selling them 100 percent but be able to bring in private sector participation as a minority state on some of these institutions,” Mr. Poku stated.

Power Outages

Meanwhile, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku has said, the power outages being experienced in parts of the country has largely improved.

He maintained that, aside the fact that some of the outages are as a result of ‘localized problems’, a chunk of the issue now is centred in in the Greater Accra Region and that the situation in other parts of the country is better.

Making a case in response to an earlier assurance he gave in later part of March when he appeared on the same programme, MrPoku, said the outages being experienced popularly known as ‘dumsor’ was not going to extend to the month of April.

According to him, even though the situation is not perfect, it has largely improved.

“I am not a government appointee. I can only talk about information I am privy to and as the chairman of the manifesto committee, what I am looking at is professing solutions to the future not for current. So yes, I am privy to certain conversations, there was meeting in Peduase, there was a meeting the following Monday, and there have been subsequent meetings by the ministry and industry, assurances that have come up is that they have put measures in place and this situation is being resolved.

By and large the situation has improved, it has improved. I know what I said I am not walking it back. I was telling you that I am not the guy on the chair. I am the guy who just hear and privy to conversations. If based on the conversations I know I say that we will not enter April with this situation and we are still in it to an extent, but much improved situation, it means that it is an ongoing progress.”

The energy expert, intimated that he has been monitoring the situation across the country and his checks have shown that the power outages have “improved massively.

“Look Alfred, I am on about 18 regional platforms which almost I can say that in terms of the party platforms, because I went round and campaigned, I still keep the platforms that I am on. On these platforms when the light start going off in those regions badly and those areas, everybody complains on those platforms. How I gauge it is the complaints of light outages on these platforms and I monitor my Whatsapp greatly and I am saying that pockets of Greater Accra by large is where the problem is in the last weeks and I am assuring you that it is being looked at. Know that there are also localized problems, so the localized problems are there, but the fact that lights go off, people should understand that light always goes off in Ghana I have always said this,”Mr Poku argues.

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