Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy and Mines Committee, John Abdulai Jinapor, has stated that the next NDC government, upon assumption of office, will reduce the losses at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the first 100 days.
Speaking to Keminni Amanor, host of Hot Issues, on Sunday, March 24, the Yapei-Kusawgu legislator emphasised that the Mahama-led NDC government is committed to reducing the losses incurred by ECG significantly.
This, he said, is because the NDC government put in place the right mechanisms before leaving office.
“When we assume office, we hit the ground running. The first thing we are doing in the first 100 days is to reduce the losses. We are determined; we’ve done it before. We reduced the losses to 20 percent and we were on a downward trend,” he stated, adding that, “they’ve [NPP] come and messed it up.”
“So that is number one. We will reduce the losses immediately by putting competent people there, by being transparent, allowing PURC [the Public Utility Regulatory Commission] to work, allowing the Energy Commission to work, setting realistic achievable targets for ECG and giving them the necessary tools through the budget system so that they can operate,” the former energy minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration stressed.
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He further noted that a future NDC government will put in place measures that will boost the confidence level of the international and business community in the country’s energy sector.
“Two, sending a confidence signal to the international community and the business community in the upstream sector and you’ll see that it will lead to the big boys coming back again,” he said, stressing, “We’ve done it before we handed over FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, FPSO Atta Mills, FPSO John Kufour…three FPSOs done by the NDC.”
He emphasised that these measures will shore up revenue to increase confidence, adding that, “it will have a cascading effect.”
Meanwhile, he underscored that the NDC left behind energy sector debt of GHS 1.5 billion which has now ballooned to GHS 17 billion under the NPP government.