Afenyo-Markin meets management, proposes reforms to turnaround struggling ECG

Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has proposed a comprehensive package of financial, operational and technological reforms to address persistent losses, revenue leakages and rising financial pressures confronting the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

The proposals include stricter enforcement of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, a review of legacy power purchase agreements, automatic settlement of electricity bills owed by public institutions, improved procurement controls and the deployment of smart meters and digital revenue-management systems.

Mr Afenyo-Markin outlined the recommendations when he attended a luncheon organised in honour of former ECG managing directors and board chairpersons at the Accra Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

In a statement reflecting on the engagement, the former ECG Board Chairman said the company’s difficulties were structural and systemic and could not be sustainably resolved through political accusations, periodic financial bailouts or repeated tariff adjustments.

He said a lasting turnaround required comprehensive institutional reforms, stronger financial discipline and greater accountability, warning against a system in which households and businesses continually bear the cost of inefficiencies within the electricity sector.

Mr Afenyo-Markin, who was appointed Board Chairman in July 2024 and served from September 29, 2024, to January 6, 2025, said his brief tenure had provided valuable insight into the operational, financial and institutional pressures facing the company.

He said the central policy question was how to make ECG financially sustainable and operationally efficient while ensuring reliable electricity supply without continually transferring the consequences of institutional weaknesses to consumers.

Tariff increases cannot replace reforms

Mr Afenyo-Markin noted that successive electricity tariff adjustments between April 2025 and September 2026, including increases and reductions, had resulted in a cumulative increase of approximately 28.7 per cent based on published average regulatory adjustments.

Although the impact differed across customer categories and consumption bands, he said electricity pricing directly affected household welfare, business production costs, employment and economic opportunities.

He maintained that tariff adjustments could play a legitimate role in a regulated electricity market but should not become a substitute for prudent financial management, effective revenue collection and institutional accountability.

“The Ghanaian consumer must not become the permanent financier of inefficiencies that the electricity sector has failed to confront,” he said.

ECG records financial gains but losses persist

Assessing ECG’s 2025 performance, Mr Afenyo-Markin acknowledged improvements in revenue, customer connections and reported financial results.

The company’s revenue increased from approximately GH¢19.03 billion in 2024 to GH¢22.11 billion in 2025, representing growth of 16.2 per cent.

Its reported loss after tax also declined from approximately GH¢8.26 billion to GH¢2.52 billion, an improvement of about 69.5 per cent.

New electricity connections increased by 31.3 per cent to 222,979, while prepaid customers accounted for approximately 53.5 per cent of the customer base.

However, he cautioned that the improved financial results did not necessarily indicate a sustainable recovery because foreign exchange gains of approximately GH¢12.16 billion materially contributed to the reduction in the reported loss after tax.

He further disclosed that ECG’s electricity purchase costs reached approximately GH¢34.8 billion in 2025, significantly exceeding its revenue of GH¢22.11 billion and resulting in a gross loss of about GH¢12.7 billion.

System losses also declined only marginally, from 27.05 per cent in 2024 to 26.88 per cent in 2025, a reduction of 0.17 percentage points.

According to him, the figures demonstrate that ECG must do more to reduce electricity losses, improve cash collection and control expenditure before its financial position can be considered sustainably recovered.

He also called for the full implementation of the Loss Reduction Programme introduced in 2023 under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government to address faulty metering, outdated billing systems, illegal connections and revenue losses.

Smart meters, digital systems to curb revenue leakages

Mr Afenyo-Markin identified technical and commercial losses as major threats to ECG’s financial sustainability, pointing to faulty meters, inaccurate customer records, delayed billing, unbilled consumption, electricity theft and weak reconciliation systems.

He cited ECG’s customer base of approximately 5.85 million at the end of 2025, explaining that if even 5 per cent of the accounts were affected by faulty meters, about 293,000 customers could potentially face inaccurate consumption measurement or billing.

He stressed that the figure was an illustrative scenario rather than evidence that 5 per cent of ECG’s meters had been established to be defective.

To address the problem, he proposed a unified customer database to eliminate duplicate and fragmented records, alongside smart prepaid and remotely monitored meters to improve measurement and reduce opportunities for manipulation.

He also recommended Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to identify customer locations, distribution assets and areas vulnerable to illegal connections.

Other proposals include integrated digital payment platforms with automated reconciliation, artificial intelligence and data analytics to detect unusual consumption patterns, and real-time management dashboards linked to metering, billing and customer complaints.

He said these interventions should be backed by effective data governance, cybersecurity safeguards, independent auditing and clear accountability.

He further called for adequately resourced revenue-protection teams, consistent sanctions against electricity theft and meter tampering, whistle-blower protection and stronger collaboration with local assemblies, traditional authorities and communities.

Three priority measures to address sector debt

Mr Afenyo-Markin proposed three major interventions to tackle ECG’s financial obligations and the wider electricity sector’s financial challenges.

First, he called for strict enforcement of the revised Cash Waterfall Mechanism to ensure electricity-sector revenues were collected, reconciled and distributed transparently according to established rules.

He said collections and disbursements should be independently auditable, with regular publication of validated information, effective regulatory oversight and accountability for deviations.

Second, he urged the government to review and, where commercially and legally feasible, renegotiate legacy power purchase agreements that impose excessive financial obligations on the sector.

He identified capacity-payment obligations and inflexible take-or-pay provisions as areas requiring attention, suggesting that more flexible take-and-pay arrangements could be pursued where appropriate and commercially viable.

However, he cautioned that negotiations must respect existing contractual rights, financing arrangements, investor confidence and the need to maintain reliable electricity supply.

Third, he proposed an enforceable mechanism for the automatic and timely settlement of electricity bills and verified arrears owed by ministries, departments, agencies and other public institutions.

He said the Ministry of Finance should consider authorised monthly deductions or budgetary offsets supported by transparent billing and reconciliation procedures.

“The State cannot credibly demand financial discipline from ECG while permitting public institutions to accumulate unpaid electricity obligations,” he said.

The Minority Leader cited an International Monetary Fund assessment projecting an energy-sector financial shortfall of approximately US$1.1 billion in 2026, arguing that periodic bailouts alone could not provide a sustainable solution.

Procurement controls needed to protect public funds

Mr Afenyo-Markin also called for procurement and inventory-management reforms, recalling concerns he encountered during his tenure over payment arrangements involving shipping documents without adequate verification of the delivery and acceptance of contracted goods.

He clarified that bills of lading were legitimate international trade documents but warned that weak verification procedures could expose ECG to delivery delays, port and storage charges, damaged goods and disputes over whether supplies met contractual specifications.

He said he had led efforts at board level to strengthen the link between contractual completion, payment obligations and verified delivery of goods at designated ECG facilities.

He urged the company to institutionalise independent verification, robust inventory controls, clear contractual safeguards and effective oversight, noting that procurement reform was integral to its financial recovery.

Mr Afenyo-Markin concluded that ECG’s long-term sustainability depended on reducing system losses, protecting revenue, controlling expenditure, honouring financial obligations and delivering reliable electricity at a fair cost.

He said a successful turnaround must go beyond improved financial statements to produce an efficient, accountable and financially resilient institution that serves Ghanaians without routinely shifting the cost of inefficiency onto consumers.