The takeover of Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) by Power Distribution Services (PDS) which was scheduled for today, February 1, has been postponed by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).
According to a statement from the authority, the decision was taken at a Special Meeting on Thursday 31st January 2019.
The statement explained that the Board of Directors of MiDA acknowledged “the significant progress made by all the Stakeholders involved in the ECG PSP Transaction towards meeting various Conditions Precedent to the transfer of the Assets and Operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd (ECG) to Messrs Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Ltdâ€.
“MiDA is confident that the transfer will occur in the next few weeks. The Board approved an extension of time to allow the Parties and Stakeholders, namely Government of Ghana (GoG), ECG and PDS, to conclude their Consultations and finalize work on some critical aspects of the Transaction, in order to facilitate a smooth transferâ€.
“MiDA wishes to assure Ghanaians that it will continue to adhere to, and uphold high standards of transparency throughout the process. MiDA will announce a new Transfer Date in early February,†it said.
This latest move comes after Martin Eson-Benjamin, the CEO of MiDA, announced that PDS will takeover the operations, assets and management of ECG on February 1.
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He stated earlier that “We have gone through many processes and now I can tell you that everything is almost completed for the new company to take over on February 1. The takeover will bring efficiency and we will all see the improvement in the new company.â€
The journey to get a private sector player to manage the affairs of the ECG started after Ghana won the power compact two which is expected to inject some 900 million dollars into the ECG.
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC on August 5, 2014.
Under the Power Compact, six projects are being implemented to address the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana.
The project includes ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.
The rest are Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency, and Demand Side Management Project.