Stakeholders in the energy sector are calling for the privatisation of the revenue collection unit of the Electricity Company of Ghana to enhance efficiency and ensure a timely distribution of funds under the Cash WaterFall Mechanism.
At a discussion on building an effective gas sector revenue system, sector players expressed concerns about ECG’s inability to collect sufficient revenue, which is negatively impacting the operations of the sector and placing undue pressure on the government for subsidies.
The recommendations include implementing cost-reflective tariffs, enhancing revenue collection and strengthening debt management strategy.
They also advocated institutional reforms, promotion of private sector participation, improving financial transparency and enhancing energy efficiency.
Ghana Gas emphasized the need for gradual tariff adjustment to reflect true service cost.
Chief Executive of Ghana Gas, Dr. Ben Asante, said that despite the positive impact of the Cash WaterFall Mechanism, the challenges must be addressed.
” The fact that the entire value chain, all our monies particularly for power generation that we put for the grid, ECG has to collect on our behalf, and if there are inefficiencies in the system if there are forex losses, I think it goes to hurt everyone along the value chain. So I think we have to think about ingenious ways to see whether we can diversify the use of a commodity or how we even make this collection, whilst at it try to minimise our technical and commercial losses,”
The Minister of Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe, said privatisation of the revenue collection aspect of ECG will make the energy sector robust.
He stated ” When it comes to a critical service like electricity, we don’t want to subject ourselves to the right payment that will enable ECG to also invest in it. The alternative is that the government should consider delivering electricity access to electricity as a human right issue, and that debate lingers on,”
