Minister-designate for Energy, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh holds the strongest view that outsourcing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to the private sector will be the best option for the country.
According to him, it has been on the radar of every government formed in Ghana to outsource ECG hence, in his view, there is the need for the private sector to takeover ECG.
However, he opines that the privatization of Electricity Company of Ghana will have to take a different dimension in order to make it workable.
Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh made these comments in response to transactions between ECG and PDS that nearly invited financial sanctions from foreign partners based on the millennium compact agreement Ghana signed with the US government in the energy sector.
Meanwhile, the Former Education Minister explains that, “since the year 2001, every government that has been formed in this country has tackled the ECG saga with privatization in mind. All of them have used one type of privatization, external entities probably owning from the top and managing ECG. There are other aspects of privatization probably we may have to look at outsourcing the last line of ECG in my view might be a workable one and also making sure that when it get into the hands of Ghanaians, we manage and manage it well .So maybe we have to tackle the privatization differently and invite private sector players and see how it goes”.
