Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko has assured that government will work to fix the distribution challenges in Ghana’s power sector.
According to him, the persistent inability of the distribution companies to retrieve debts has adversely affected the development of the sector.
Currently the ECG is working with a negative capital to the tune of 2 billion cedis.
Speaking at the National Policy Summit, Mr. Agyarko stressed that the worrying trend warranted the Private Sector Participation(PSP) currently being discussed with the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC).
“The last time I checked, ECG, for example, had a negative working capital of two billion cedis; it tells you that your receivables are more than your payables,” he said, warning that “any receivable aged past 180 days is a right talk”.
Mr. Agyarko pointed out that the situation has reached an alarming situation where ECG is unable to cover its operational cost.
He noted that the challenges call for the need to bring in the private sector to invest and turn things around.
“ I dare say go back to six years. If somebody owes you money and hasn’t paid back in six years, your chance of collecting that money is either slim or none. So we need to fix the balance sheet of the distribution agencies. We seek to do so by inviting private sector participation in the distribution sector and to improve the technical and commercial performance,” he stressed.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
