Accra, Nov. 15, – The
shareholding threshold of Ghanaians in the ECG Private Sector Participation
(PSP) Programme has been increased from 20 percent to 51 percent in response to
public concerns over the issue.
Delivering the 2018 Budget
Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament, on Wednesday, the Finance
Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, said the Government also sought the amendment to
reduce the concession period from 25 years to 20 years.
According to the Millennium
Development Authority, The PSP would be in the form of a Concession, during
which the electric distribution network and other assets of ECG would be leased
to the Concessionaire, while ECG becomes an Asset holding Company.
At the end of the Concession, all
assets would be transferred back to ECG.
MiDA says the successful
implementation of this activity would ensure reliable power supply for domestic
and industrial use; Lower cost of services resulting in relatively stable
end–user tariffs; Improved transparency and independence in the setting of
regulated tariffs by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission.
It says over the medium term,
improvements in ECG’s creditworthiness would enable the Company acquire
additional generation capacity from IPPs without, or with limited, recourse to
government guarantees.
The Finance Minister said to
enhance development of a competitive power market, the Government approved the
restructuring of Volta River Authority (VRA) to include an entity to manage the
hydroelectric facilities separately and the sale to the private sector of the
state-funded thermal power plants, which government assigned to VRA to manage
and operate.
“The restructuring of VRA will
also enable the use of cheap electricity from legacy hydro to support
government subsidy objectives to a targeted category of consumers in a
transparent manner,” he said.
Another reforms in the Energy
Sector to begin next year, the Minster said, an MDA Solar Rooftop Programme
dubbed: ‘Government Goes Solar’, to reduce the expenditure on utilities.
The initiative is also in line with the
Ministry of Energy’s policy of increasing the penetration of renewable energy
in the energy mix and the promotion of distributed solar power for government
and public buildings.
GNA
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