Samuel Dubik Mahama, the former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has stated that the administration of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not invest in ECG during his first term in office. Mahama attributed this lack of investment to the government’s focus on privatizing the power distribution company at that time. “If you reflect on the situation, during the President’s first term, all efforts were directed towards privatizing ECG. As a result, there was no investment in the company,” he mentioned during an interview on Joy FM on Thursday, April 10.
Mr. Mahama referenced the controversial Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal, under which ECG’s management was handed over to PDS for about eight months. The agreement was later terminated, prompting ECG’s return to state control just ahead of the 2020 general elections. “When I assumed office in 2022 as Managing Director, one of the first things I did was to conduct a health check on the company…What I found was that although there had been massive growth in the number of ECG customers, this was not properly reflected in the company’s data,” he noted.
“The billing system had its own deficiencies. When it hit the 4.5 million customer mark, new customers being added were not being captured in the billing system. They were hanging,” he said.
Source: Citi Newsroom
