The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has assured that government will secure the welfare of Ghanaians under the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC) Power Compact II.
Under the Power Compact II, government is expected to allow Private Sector Participation in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for the country to benefit from a cash injection of about 498 million dollars.
Speaking to the Head of Business Desk of Citi FM at the on-going Spring Meetings in Washington, Vivian Kai Lokko, the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia maintained that government is trying to renegotiate the terms of the compact to protect ECG workers.
“We talked to the Millennium Challenge Corporation when we got here, we are trying to renegotiate the concession agreed. As you know the NDC government signed on to a compact as far as concession of ECG is concerned so we have been talking to the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC) on that matter and we are renegotiating the agreement in the sense to make sure that the concession agreement has majority Ghanaian ownership,” he explained.
Dr. Bawumia stressed that government is bent on getting a majority stake for Ghanaians to prevent the foreign investor from laying off Ghanaian workers.
He stated that it is important for government to command majority ownership since it will help in blocking any attempt to initiate a restructuring that may result in job losses.
“It has to be majority Ghanaian owned. Secondly we have to have an assurance that there will be no lay-offs at ECG as a result of the concession and also it will be managed by Ghanaians. So those are the elements that we have insisted on and also we have gotten an understanding on these elements,” he said.
The Compact II
Under the Power Compact, six projects will be implemented to address the the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana
The project include ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.
The rest are 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
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC on August 5, 2014.
The Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant sum of four hundred and ninety eight million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars (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.
The Compact is being implemented by the Government of Ghana through the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana