ECG Must Be Listed On GSE- Workers

Employees of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have reiterated their preference for the listing of company on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) instead of ceding it to a private investor (concessionaire) under the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) II programme of the US for a period of 25 years.

The workers, expected to be led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to meet management of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and the Chief of Staff later this week in Accra to address their grievances, insist government should back out of the MCC deal.

“We have made all our points known and we have tabled them before the Chief of Staff,” they told the media in Accra.

It would be recalled the workers recently halted a planned bidders conference announced by MiDA.

Last week, Parliament approved a loan agreement between government and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of $60 million which government plans to on-lend to the ECG for the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) under the Power Compact II programme.

Finance Minister Seth Terkper, who appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance and Mines & Energy, particularly vouched for the ECG's ability to pay the $60 million loan.

This was after a joint technical team comprising officials of the World Bank and the ministry had assessed the capability of ECG.

According to him, adequate repayment measures had been put in place to prevent ECG from defaulting on its loan repayment.

The guiding principles include the opening of an escrow receivable account for depositing receivables from the project solely for the loan's repayment.

The loan agreement between government and IDA stipulates that an interest rate of 1.25 per cent per annum is to be paid on the loan, while a service charge of 0.75 percent per annum is to be paid on withdrawn balance, and also a commitment charge of 0.5 percent per annum on any unwithdrawn balance, a grace period of five years and a repayment period of 25 years.

Government, in return, is prepared to lend the facility to the ECG at an interest rate of 5.3 percent per annum.

Also, there is a service charge of 0.75 percent per annum on withdrawn balance, a commitment charge of 0.5 percent per annum on the unwithdrawn balance, a grace period of five years and a repayment period of 17 years.

MiDA has explained that the Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant of $498,200,000 to improve Ghana's power sector, open the country's economic potential, generate jobs and reduce poverty.

By Samuel Boadi
[email protected]