Who’re the Ghanaians with 51% Ownership in ECG Concession? – Jinapor Asks

Former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, is demanding full disclosure of the identity of the indigenous Ghanaians who own 51 percent of the Meralco Consortium in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) concession arrangement.

The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), on Thursday announced Meralco Consortium as the preferred bidder to manage the technical and financial operations of the ECG.

Government introduced a new policy which required that any company that wins the bid must have a 51% Ghanaian ownership in the structure of the concession.

This led to some of the companies abandoning their interest in managing ECG under the Millennium Challenge Compact II.

Speaking to Citi News, John Jinapor indicated that, even though local content is important, the public must know the Ghanaians behind the consortium.

“When the new policy was announced, you will realize that all the top and big companies pulled out. About four or six companies pulled out because of the restructuring they [government] brought. So I’m saying that let us confirm that this new company indeed has 51 percent indigenous Ghanaian shareholding structure.”

“We first need the confirmation as Ghanaians because that was the bottom-line for the change in the whole restructuring. So let us be convinced that yes, this new company indeed has 51 percent indigenous Ghanaian shareholding structure. And the only way to know is when they tell us that these are the indigenous Ghanaian shareholding companies,” he added.

‘We were excluded’ 

The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), has also accused the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and government, of excluding them rom 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 Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of PUWU, Michael Adumattah Nyantakyi, said they find this very strange.

“This whole process, we learnt that ECG which is the subject of the whole concession was not even represented on the evaluation panel. So we think something is very wrong because the people who are the asset owners, those whose assets you are going to give out to a concessionaire does not have a say or even appraising who is going to take over the asset.”

Supervise the concessionaire – ACEP

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), urged government to adopt a monitoring system to supervise the concessionaire after it finalizes the negotiations.

The ‎Executive Director of ACEP, Ben Boakye, stated in a Citi News interview that this will ensure value for money and efficiency.

“If you bring the best of the best into the country and you don’t have a monitoring system that ensures that you are able to track the performance of the company. As a private company and a profit-oriented company, that could become their focus at the expense of ensuring that the value that we seek to gain by handing it over to the private sector is actually realized,” he added.