Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) Senior Staff Association Chair, William Asare has accused government of pushing a full takeover of NEDCo operations under the proposed private sector participation (PSP) arrangement, contrary to assurances previously given by President John Mahama.
According to him, the guiding framework being implemented by the PSP secretariat goes far beyond billing and revenue collection and instead hands over the entire operational control of NEDCo to private entities.
Speaking on the proposed reforms in the power distribution sector on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday May 21, Asare said the official document submitted to the Ministry of Energy paints a completely different picture from what government has communicated publicly.
“If you get the guiding framework document which was submitted by the technical committee to the Minister of Energy and when you read the document you will realise that the document is contrary to what the president is telling the Ghanaian public,” he stated.
“The president at the last meeting indicated that ECG workers and NEDCo workers will be involved in transformer maintenance and the private sector is just for billing and collection. That is contrary to the document that the PSP secretariat is implementing.”
He argued that the framework clearly states that the private operator will assume control from the bulk supply point, which he described as the starting point of NEDCo’s operations.
“For the avoidance of doubt let me state that if you read the document the document states that the PSP will take over our operations from the bulk supply point. The bulk supply point is where our work begins at NEDCo so if the PSP is taking over from there and is responsible for all our operations, technical, commercial operations then it is not participation, it is complete takeover of our operations,” he said.
Asare questioned what role would remain for NEDCo staff if the arrangement proceeds in its current form.
“The question that we should be asking the government is that what will be the work of NEDCo staff. If you read the document, the document says that NEDCo will just remain assets owners and what will be the work of the assets owner, you own the assets it ends there. The private sector is responsible for all our operations,” he added.
He further defended the performance of NEDCo across several regions, insisting the company has demonstrated capacity to reduce losses and improve operational efficiency without private sector control.
“If you read the document they have NEDCo operations into five regions Bono, Bono East, Upper East, Upper West and Northern region. If you take all our regional operations, we are meeting the regulatory benchmark. PURC says that we should do a distribution loss of 21%,” he explained.
“Go to Sunyani, go to Techiman, go to Upper West. We are meeting those benchmarks except Tamale where our losses used to be 45% and we have worked so hard to bring to 37%. We have demonstrated that we are capable of bringing down the losses and in particularly in Tamale.”
His comments add to growing resistance by VRA and NEDCo staff groups against government’s proposed private sector participation model in electricity distribution within northern Ghana.
The staff groups have argued that the PSP arrangement amounts to privatisation disguised as participation and could leave more than 1,300 NEDCo workers without meaningful roles.
Government has maintained that the initiative is intended to improve operational efficiency, strengthen electricity distribution and ensure a more sustainable energy sector.
