Energy expert and chairman of the energy subcommittee for the NPP 2024 Campaign, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, has stated that cabinet has approved a merger of some entities in the power sector for supply efficiency and private sector participation.
They include the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Bui Power, the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO), and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The energy expert, however, maintained that the privatisation of GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA) cannot be “a wholesale sale of those entities” because of the technical and the monopoly role they play.
“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.
“The government has stripped the VRA thermal as a separate entity so when,” 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.
“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,” said Mr. Nsafoah on The Key Points on Saturday, April 20.
He further indicated that the government must streamline the roles of an entity like the GRIDCo. According to him, this will allow for some form of privatisation but not necessarily “selling them 100 percent.”
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“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,” he said.
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