By Issah Olegor
President John Dramani Mahama has firmly ruled out the privatisation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), offering a strong reassurance to organised labour and the general public amid persistent concerns over the fate of the country’s power distributor.
Speaking during the 2025 May Day celebration at Black Star Square in Accra, President Mahama directly addressed widespread speculation that ECG could be sold to private interests.
“Let me assure you that it is not my intention to privatise ECG as an institution,” he declared.
“Our attention is more on a public-private collaboration to inject efficiency into our downstream electricity distribution system.”
Mounting Pressure
The President’s comments come at a time when Ghana’s energy sector is grappling with significant operational and financial challenges.
ECG, the country’s main electricity distributor, is reportedly saddled with a staggering GH¢68 billion in debt. This fiscal burden has raised alarms among stakeholders and labour unions, who fear that the government might be pushed into offloading the company as a solution to stabilise the sector.
Mahama, however, dispelled those fears, attributing the current crisis to years of poor governance.
“The ECG has been brought to its knees by a culture of poor governance over the last eight years,” he noted.
He warned that unless urgent reforms are introduced, the entire power sector could collapse under the weight of inefficiency and debt.
A Model for Reform
Rather than selling ECG, Mahama proposed a hybrid solution involving public-private partnerships.
Drawing from his earlier tenure as president, he cited the example of Enclave Power Company, which was contracted to handle metering and billing within Ghana’s Free Zones enclave.
ECG continued supplying bulk power, while Enclave Power achieved a billing and revenue collection rate of 99 percent — a level of efficiency that ECG has long struggled to attain.
“That model worked — and still works,” Mahama stressed.
“They pay ECG on time every month. It is proof that we can maintain public ownership while improving efficiency through smart collaboration with the private sector.”
Public concern over the potential privatisation of ECG is rooted in past developments under the Millennium Challenge Compact II agreement between Ghana and the United States.
Under that deal, signed in 2014, ECG was temporarily brought under the control of a private consortium, Power Distribution Services (PDS), in 2019.
The deal was later cancelled over allegations of fraud and lack of due diligence.
The backlash from that controversial agreement left a sour taste in the mouths of workers and policymakers alike, prompting fears that any future private sector involvement could once again threaten national control over critical power infrastructure.
Labour unions, including the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have since remained wary of any attempt to introduce private management or ownership in ECG.
It is against this backdrop that Mahama’s statement serves as a direct reassurance to organised labour — one of his key constituencies.
Energy Vision
President Mahama’s speech also touched on the broader need to restructure the power distribution framework to make it more resilient and cost-effective.
He reiterated his belief that improving efficiency, rather than changing ownership, is the only viable path to reducing power tariffs for consumers.
“We can only bring down power tariffs if we improve efficiency in the distribution of power,” he emphasized, suggesting that inefficiencies, not subsidies or ownership structure, are at the root of high electricity costs.
