Former ECG boss, Samuel Dubik Mahama, has revealed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) saw little to no investment during President Nana Akufo-Addo’s first term in office.

Speaking at the JoyNews National Dialogue on Thursday, Mr. Mahama said the government’s attention was focused on privatising ECG rather than improving its infrastructure and operations.

“If you cast your mind back, during the President’s first tenure, all efforts were geared towards sending ECG into privatisation. So, there was zero investment in the company,” he said.

He recalled how the management of ECG was handed over to Power Distribution Services (PDS) as part of the privatisation effort, but that arrangement lasted only eight months before it collapsed.

ECG was then returned to full government control just before the 2020 general elections.

Mr. Mahama, who became ECG’s Managing Director in 2022, said one of his first tasks was to assess the company’s condition.

“What I found was that although there had been massive growth in the number of ECG customers, this was not properly reflected in the company’s data,” he noted.

He explained that the billing system ECG used, which was developed through a World Bank project, could not keep up with the growing customer base.

“The billing system had its own deficiencies. When it hit the 4.5 million customer mark, new customers being added were not being captured in the billing system. They were hanging,” he added.