Ghana Wants Private Operators Inside Its Power Utility, and Labour Is Digging In
GHANA · ENERGY
Key Facts
—The timetable: A finance ministry adviser said in May that private sector participation in the Electricity Company of Ghana would come at the end of this year or early next.
—The preparation: Government says it is preparing to move ahead with restructuring before the end of 2026.
—The model: Cabinet endorsed concession and public-private partnership arrangements in April 2025 rather than a sale, with the state retaining ownership.
—Who is pushing: The programme is being pursued with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, aimed at ECG’s commercial and technical losses.
—The opposition: The Trades Union Congress says it will use all legal means available, though it has clarified that it does not mean the courts; the Public Utility Workers’ Union called the process rushed in December.
—Labour’s argument: Union leaders say ECG’s own turnaround has already improved revenue collection and cut system losses, and should be allowed to continue.
Ghana ECG private sector participation is targeted for around the turn of the year, a finance ministry adviser said in May, with restructuring under way. The Trades Union Congress says it will use every means available to stop it.
What Ghana ECG private sector participation means
The Electricity Company of Ghana distributes power to most of the country’s southern half, and it loses a large share of what it buys before anyone pays for it. Some is technical loss in the wires, some is theft and unbilled consumption.
The government’s plan is not a sale. Cabinet endorsed concession and public-private partnership arrangements in April last year, under which private operators would run specific functions while the state keeps ownership.
Theo Acheampong, an adviser at the finance ministry, put the start at around the turn of the year in comments in May. His words were that participation “will happen. End of year going into early next year.”
Government has said it is preparing to move ahead with the restructuring before the end of this year. It has not said the preparation will be finished.
Why the lenders care
ECG’s losses do not stay inside ECG. They flow into arrears with independent power producers and gas suppliers, and ultimately into the national budget.
That is why the reform sits inside Ghana’s programme with the International Monetary Fund and is backed by the World Bank. It is treated as a fiscal measure, not an energy one.
The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition said in December that the state would not sell ECG, framing the framework as the deployment of private expertise in specific operational areas.
Labour has drawn a hard line
The Trades Union Congress said on Monday it would use all legal means available to prevent the arrangement proceeding, and that it regards participation and privatisation as the same thing.
Its deputy secretary-general, Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, then narrowed that. By legal avenues, he said, the union means the traditional tools of organised labour rather than the courts.
The Public Utility Workers’ Union has separately called the appointment of a transaction adviser premature and rushed. That statement dates from December.
Their substantive argument is that ECG’s internal turnaround is already working, citing better revenue collection, lower system losses and steadier supply. They say the roadmap they agreed came with assurances of non-interference.
Ghana has been here before. An earlier concession of ECG under a United States compact was terminated in 2019, and Ghana forfeited about US$190m in compact funding. That memory shapes the current fight.
The scale of the problem is not disputed. An IMF paper puts ECG’s distribution losses at 27.1% in 2024, with the company collecting about 86% of what it bills.
What an investor should read into it
Distribution concessions are among the hardest assets to structure in African power markets, because the operator inherits a collection problem it did not create. Bidders will price that risk heavily.
The state keeping ownership narrows the upside and the political exposure at the same time. It is a compromise designed to be survivable rather than lucrative.
The timetable also runs into an election cycle, which is the variable most likely to move it.
The reform has a physical dimension too
Ghana’s distribution network is being damaged from outside as well as drained from within. The communications ministry recorded 8,578 fibre cuts this year, roughly half caused by road construction, and power infrastructure shares those corridors.
Any operator taking on ECG functions inherits a network in a country that is building roads quickly and mining illegally alongside them.
The 2019 precedent nobody has forgotten
Ghana previously concessioned ECG’s distribution operations under a United States compact, and the arrangement was terminated in 2019 amid disputes over the process. Both sides drew lessons from it, and they were not the same lessons.
For government, the failure was in structuring. For unions, it was proof that the model does not fit.
Any new transaction therefore starts with a credibility deficit on both sides of the table.
What actually causes the losses
Distribution losses in Ghana are a mixture of ageing network equipment, unmetered connections, illegal tapping and unpaid bills, including from public institutions. Only some of that is a management problem.
A private operator can install meters and improve collection. It cannot make a ministry pay its electricity bill.
That is why the government’s own arrears to the sector matter as much as the concession structure does.
What the timetable collides with
Early 2027 places the transaction close to the start of a political cycle in which energy prices are always contested. Tariff decisions taken under a concession are read as privatisation whatever the legal structure says.
That is the practical reason governments delay these reforms, and the reason lenders attach deadlines to them.
What to watch next
The first marker is publication of the transaction structure and the functions to be concessioned. The second is whether the TUC actually files.
The third is the IMF review calendar, which is where the deadline pressure really comes from.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will Ghana ECG private sector participation start?
A finance ministry adviser says it should formally begin by early 2027, with preparatory restructuring completed before the end of 2026.
Is the government selling ECG?
No. Cabinet has endorsed concession and public-private partnership arrangements under which the state retains ownership of the company.
Who is behind the reform?
It is being pursued with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, targeting ECG’s commercial and technical losses.
What does organised labour say?
The Trades Union Congress has threatened legal action and says it will use all legal means available, though it has clarified that it does not mean the courts, while the Public Utility Workers’ Union called the process rushed in December.
Has Ghana tried this before?
Yes. An earlier concession of ECG under a United States compact was terminated in 2019, which shapes the current debate.
Connected Coverage
Ghana’s fiscal recovery is covered in the return to the medium-term curve and the continent’s power access gap, and the physical state of its networks in Ghana’s 8,578 fibre cuts.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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