ECG Concession: PUWU’s ‘Legitimate’ Concerns Addressed- Energy Minister

The Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, has indicated that all legitimate concerns of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) workers have been dealt with as government finalises the ECG concession agreement.

This follows the presentation of the ECG concession agreement to Parliament for ratification.

Speaking to journalists after laying the agreement in Parliament, Boakye Agyarko said the issues around job security had been given adequate attention.

“The core of the PUWU issue had to deal with job losses and once it was written into the request for proposal and the documentation that workers would be kept and that there would be no job losses, I believe the legitimate issues of PUWU were addressed,” the Minister said.

The ECG workers belong to the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU), which has been critical of the concession agreement under the Millennium Challenge Compact.

PUWU recently accused the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and the government of excluding it from the Evaluation Panel during the last round of negotiations that led to the selection of the concessionaire, Meralco Consortium, a Philippines firm, to manage the ECG.

Per the compact, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is expected to inject about $418 million into ECG, whilst Meralco will invest about $500 million as part of efforts to boost the capacity of ECG.

Details of Compact II

Under the Power Compact, six projects will be implemented to address the problems of power provision in Ghana.

The projects include the ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, an Access Project, the Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Project.

The Government of Ghana signed the Ghana Power Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington on August 5, 2014.

Ghana to get over 498m dollars

The Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant US$498,200,000 to improve the performance of Ghana’s power sector, unlock the country’s economic potential, create jobs, and reduce poverty.

About US$350 million of the grant is being invested in ECG to make the country’s power distributor operationally and financially more efficient.

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