Dubik Mahama, the former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is strongly advocating for a model of strategic private sector participation rather than an outright, full-scale privatization of the national power distributor.
This stance underscores the necessity of balancing policy directives, such as the state’s restrictive Cash Waterfall Mechanism, with the human and operational demands required to run a sustainable utility company.
According to Mahama, the primary objective should not be to dismantle the current public infrastructure completely, but to optimize and secure the ongoing internal reforms and private programs that are already yielding substantial revenue milestones.
“I’m not for the privatisation in totality. I’m partially in favour because to some extent, there’s already some private sector participation going on now. So that’s why I’m saying, if you continue with the private sector participation that’s in there now, that 2.1 to 2.5, it’s a reality.”
Dubik Mahama
Mahama points out that the operational framework implemented during his tenure laid down the bedrock for ECG’s current revenue expansion, pushing monthly collection figures from previous lows of 500 million Cedis to impressive highs between 2.1 billion and 2.5 billion Cedis.
However, the core of the crisis lies within the rigid fiscal allocations mandated by external regulatory entities.
When the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) disproportionately strips away trillions from the localized collection pool to distribute across the wider energy supply chain, it leaves the primary distributor with insufficient capital to sustain its basic operational expenditure.
This aggressive redistribution starves the company of critical liquidity, fundamentally crippling its capacity to manage staff welfare, maintain lines, and secure basic grid components.
The Crippling Math of Regulatory Deprivation
To understand why strategic private inclusion has transitioned from a structural option to an urgent economic necessity, one must examine the baseline operational math that governs ECG’s survival.
When the utility distributes its generated collections to the state-backed Cash Waterfall Mechanism, the regulatory administrators take that total and determine that ECG deserves an operational allocation of only 250 million to 300 million Cedis.
This micro-allocation immediately sets off an institutional crisis when mapped against rigid fixed expenses.
Capital Overhauls and the Whistles and Bells of Management
The core paradox of Ghana’s energy policy rests on the willingness of stakeholders to accord foreign concessionaires administrative privileges that are systematically denied to localized leadership.
Policymakers are entirely ready to privatize and hand over an external operator all the “whistles and bells” required to run a flexible corporate entity, yet they refuse to grant those identical operational flexibilities and spending autonomies to internal state managers.
This policy imbalance stifles domestic innovation and forces public entities into a cycle of planned artificial failure.
Strategic privatization bridges this gap by introducing modern corporate governance that insulates everyday utility management from regulatory overreach.
By embedding specific private sector objectives within the public framework, the utility can escape the trap of sacrificing operational sustainability for national political optics.
It ensures that the cash generated by the company’s technical efficiency remains accessible within the localized cash flow to preserve the physical life of the network, rather than being redirected to cover external fiscal deficits.
Securing the Gains of the Loss Reduction Programme
The justification for sustained private partnership is illustrated by the successes recorded under the specialized Loss Reduction Programme.
Prior to the rollout of these target-driven private partnerships, monthly internal revenue collections stagnated around 500 million to 700 million Cedis.
The subsequent integration of private technological metrics introduced an aggressive digitization process that significantly streamlined national bills collection and eliminated systemic leakages.
Managing a modern utility company requires a delicate control of escalating expectations, especially as public and labor unions demand immediate capital dispersion the moment revenues scale upward toward 1.5 billion Cedis.
The implementation of digital collection protocols proved that when commercial objectives are insulated via private sector participation, revenue efficiency rises naturally.
To build on this framework, Ghana must reject total privatization and instead pursue a hybrid model that secures private capital for grid reinforcement while maintaining state oversight over vital national assets.
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