President John Dramani Mahama has dismissed any plans to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), assuring the public that the utility will remain state-owned under his administration.
Addressing the 2025 May Day celebrations at Black Star Square in Accra on Thursday, May 1, President Mahama responded to growing public concern over the potential sale of ECG, calling such fears unfounded. He pledged to pursue strategic public-private partnerships to boost efficiency in electricity distribution, without compromising public ownership.
“Let me assure you that it is not my intention to privatise ECG as an institution. Our attention is more on a public-private collaboration to inject efficiency into our downstream electricity distribution system,” he stated.
The President’s remarks come in response to growing public concern over ECG’s escalating debts and operational difficulties, with widespread warnings about a potential collapse of the energy sector. He blamed the company’s troubled state on what he called eight years of poor governance and mismanagement.
“The ECG has been brought to its knees by a culture of poor governance over the last eight years, with a debt of GH¢68 billion and rising. If we do not do something drastic, our whole power sector will collapse. We can only bring down power tariffs if we improve efficiency in the distribution of power,” he explained.
While opposing full privatisation, President Mahama emphasized public-private partnerships as a more effective route to reform. He pointed to a successful initiative from his previous administration involving Enclave Power Company in the Free Zones enclave, which he said proved that operational efficiency is possible without giving up public ownership.
“When I was President, in the free zones, a private company, Enclave Power, was given the right of metering and billing in the free zone. ECG provided them with a bulk supply of power. They pay ECG, and until today, they still pay ECG monthly on time. Their billing and collection in the free zones enclave is 99% of revenue collected,” he recalled.
President Mahama stated that this model demonstrates how the electricity sector can achieve operational efficiency by combining state ownership with private sector expertise.
