Ghanaians will have to brace themselves and pay more for electricity as they are doing for most petroleum products, as full or partial privatization of electricity will commence by the end of the year or early next year, Business Finder can confirm.
Indeed, government will offload part of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to a private company which is likely to be a foreign one before the end of the year as part of the $4 billion deal with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the USA.
Already, due to the impending privatisation, the ECG has began replacing all old prepaid meters at the Adenta SSNIT flats and some estates at Amrahia, Ashalley Botwe and its surrounding areas with new ones which consumers can only reload their meters via mobile phones.
This paper gathers that the ECG has timelines of replacing all old meters by early next year as part of the agreement signed with the MCC to improve the energy situation in the country.
The five-year compact is designed to create a self-sustaining energy sector in Ghana by reforming laws and regulations needed to transform the country’s power sector.
When Business Finder caught up with the electrical technicians replacing the old meters, they could not confirm or deny whether the move is part of efforts at introducing privatisation into the energy sector.
They however explained that the replacement of old prepaid meters is starting with Accra East and then to the rest of the capital and later the regions.
They added that all old prepaid and post paid meters will be replaced with the new prepaid meters which can be monitored at a centralised point.
Sources say the government will gradually take its hands off electricity subsidy for consumers, paving way for privatisation of electricity to start.
The privatisation could also lead to some job losses since manual work will be replaced by electronic and ICT.
Already, the MCC have vowed to ensure that every dollar released to Ghana to improve its power sector is strictly utilised according to terms of the compact.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission also on June 30 announced a 51.73 percent increase in electricity tariffs.
The Commission also reiterated its intention to embark on a major Tariff Review Exercise which commenced from July to October, 2015.
The Vice-President of the Department of Compact Operations of the MCC, Kamran Khan announced recently that his outfit has received communication from government that ECG will be released on concession to a private company yet to be determined.
Though government officials have denied on countless occasions about the intended privatisation of ECG, Business Finder can state categorically that ECG will be sold to a private company-whether foreign or local by the close of the year as part of the MCC deal.
The Ghana Power Compact is expected to pool more than $4 billion in private energy investment and activity from American and global energy firms in the coming years.
Bloomberg had earlier reported that government is set to push state-owned corporations, including ECG to issue debt on their own balance sheets.
It quoted Finance Min¬ister, Seth Tekper as saying that Ghana will have "vig¬orous use of alternative financing instruments for energy and non-energy investments,"
"We will continue to enhance the use of oil as a resource to leverage the capital mar¬kets for development," he said.
The nation is still grappling with the power crisis which intensified one and half year ago.
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