New ECG owner, PDS starts operation today

The new owners of the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, Power Distribution Services, PDS, has officially begun operations today, Friday, March 1, 2019. Government has on Wednesday handed over the operations of the state-owned facility to PDS.

The Minister of Energy, Peter Amewu at the handing over ceremony said goverment will not hesitate to take over the operations of the company again if the new owners did not meet the Key Performance Indicators in their 20years deal.

“If for some reasons PDS which we expect to come in to address some of these concerns will be repeating some of these challenges then I don’t see the rationale for us gathering here, Ghanaians will, therefore, be given the opportunity to do it, if the loses remain 25%, the power theft will continue to increase, the technical drive to change equipment will remain unchanged then it’s better we take over our equipment and run it at the same level.”

Some Ghanaians have raised concerns about the ownership of ECG being handed over to a private company, according to them tariffs may go up due to the change in ownership.

But as PDS starts operations today they are some things to expect from them as the new owners of ECG.

The spokesperson for the company, Fred Asimeni speaking to Joy FM said there is no need for Ghanaians to worry about the change in ownership because the company has the requisite skills to turn the fortunes of ECG around.

“We are bringing on board, first of all, a lot of investment to transform the utility sector in Ghana, secondly we are also bringing a lot of expertise, our technical partner Meralco has been in this industry for over 115 years, thirdly we hope to greatly improve the level of customer service and efficiency in revenue collection rate in electric distribution utility in the southern distribution zone of Ghana, so i can i assure all Ghanaians there is no need for them to worry.”