The Energy Minister-designate, Boakye Agyarko has stated that the Millennium Power Compact II is a concession and not an outright sale of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
“The concession is not a sale. If you read the compact very carefully it is explicitly clear that the assets remain with government but there is a lease on the assets so the concessionaire comes in O& M to use the assets of government. So it is not a sale. The assets never leave the book of records of government so it’s not a sale. It is not a sale. It is a grant of concession for a period,” he told parliament’s appointment committee Monday evening.
Mr. Agyarko added “Let the concessionaire come in and take all the debt, assets and liability and move on and see if they will outperform ECG. Our position is , yes there is a compact let us take on board all the issue that have been raised both by ECG workers, Civil Society originations and others and let us see if we can have a common ground to reduce the tension so the project can move on.”
His claims are contrary to earlier statements by some NPP members during electioneering period indicating that the government was seeking to sell the electricity distributor.
Workers of the ECG had also embarked on a series of demonstrations in 2016 against the compact, describing it as an attempt by government to sell the company leading to job losses.
Former President Mahama had on several occasions maintained that ECG would not be sold and it was a concession arrangement being made to make the company efficient.
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC on August 5, 2014.
The Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant sum of four hundred and ninety eight million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars (US$498,200,000) to improve the performance of Ghana’s power sector, unlock the country’s economic potential, create jobs, and reduce poverty.
About US$350 million of the grant is being invested in ECG to make the country’s power distributor operationally and financially more efficient.
The Compact is being implemented by the Government of Ghana through the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).
