The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) has told Citi Business News it should select a concessionaire for the private sector participation in the ECG by September this year – 2018.
This should allow the injection of some five hundred million dollars ($500m) into the operations of the power distributor.
The CEO of MiDA, Mr. Martin Esson Benjamin his outfit will evaluate the proposals to be submitted by the four shortlisted applicants by March 2018 to inform the next line of action.
“At the moment we have put the bids out, the Requests for Proposals are also out; we have two more months for the four bidders who are interested to bring their proposals. Then we evaluate and then we hope that we can beat the September 6 deadline…So far I think that my joy is the fact that there are still people who are willing and able to be led to move the process forward so my energies are now concentrated on looking at the loose ends and putting things together,” he told Citi Business News.
The four shortlisted concessionaires are expected to submit the Request for Proposal and financial plan of revamping the electricity company of Ghana.
This follows the completion of an assessment of the installations of the ECG, last year (2017).
Mr. Esson Benjamin also tells Citi Business News the power sector should see a turnaround soon with the completion of the necessary processes.
“When we have gotten the change, then we will see how best we can use the change to untie the areas that have problems. But so far I think we have lost time and there is no argument about that; there’s a lot of water that has gone under the bridge,” he stressed.
Under the Power Compact Two agreement, the selected concessionaire will partner the US government in improving the operations of the ECG.
The US government through its Millennium Challenge Corporation has already committed some 500 million dollars into the project.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana