Business News of Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2017-05-09
Ben Boakye, Acting Executive Director, ACEP
The government has been asked to put out details of the amendment to the US$498 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) support for the country’s energy sector.
The Acting Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Mr Ben Boakye, in an interview called on the government to come out clear on the issue.
“The government has to speak to stakeholders before making that major shift because it was based on stakeholder agitation that the review was done. Therefore, even before it goes to agree on anything, it has to listen to the stakeholders and speak to the workers but as we speak that hasn’t happened,” he said.
He said delaying the process and taking isolated decision would drag the whole process during which the consumer would suffer the most.
“We are paying so much for electricity because a lot is going to waste and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is not managing things well. We need to iron out the differences and get into business with the whole concession,” he said.
September deadline
In spite of the September deadline, uncertainties surround the agreement.
Mr Boakye said government must quickly convene a meeting with all stakeholders to make known its intention, apart from highlighting the issues.
“If you say 51 per cent Ghanaian, what structure is that? Are you going to list it, are you going to invite Ghanaian businesses who have money to team up and bid for it? What happens to companies who have been shortlisted for the concession arrangement for the past two years because, already, that process had started,” he quizzed.
Government’s announcement
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the recent May Day celebrations said the government had amended the terms of the concession agreement, which required that Ghanaians own at least 51 per cent of the concession.
The review also required that there should be no involuntary lay-offs as a result of the concession. On the tenure of the agreement the government said it had succeeded in reducing the years from 25 to 20.
The President was confident that the amendments met the aspirations of Ghanaians by protecting the jobs of workers and the control and viability of the ECG.
The government signed the second MCC Compact named: “Ghana Power Compact” as part of measures to improve the power sector through the introduction of independent power producers and private distributors in electricity supply, as well as the privatisation of the ECG.
The deal requires that the ECG is given out to a private sector investor on a concession base for a period of time.
