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The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) now Power Distribution Services (PDS) has assured its workers that their jobs are safe.

Reports are rife that some of the workers are apprehensive about the safety of their jobs since a new company has taken over operations of ECG.

However in an interview with William Boateng, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the company on Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, he assured that the workers are not going to lose their jobs.

He said they should not be afraid because “all these have been sorted out . . . no worker will be fired unless they want to leave. The workers are all behind this; expecting the initiative to take off”.

According to him, “some of us are happy the company is no longer in the hands of government; at least we know government’s interference in our operations will reduce tremendously. ECG seems to be a political tool to the extent that people will say ‘no electricity no vote’ and so government has been bold to hand the company over to a private entity. We are confident things will turn around for good”.

Background

The Electricity Company of Ghana will be handing over operations of the company to Power Distribution Services (PDS).

PDS is expected to turnaround the operations of ECG to make it profitable.

The negotiated Transaction Agreements – namely the Lease and Assignment Agreement, Bulk Supply Agreement, and Government Support Agreement – to secure the proposed Private Sector Participation (PSP) in ECG were approved by Cabinet and ratified by Parliament.

The Concessionaire, according to the agreement, is expected to inject an amount of $580m into the distribution system during the agreement period’s first five years.

The Bulk Supply Agreement between ECG and the Concessionaire deals with the Concessionaire’s back-to-back purchase of the capacity and energy made available to ECG under the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

The Concessionaire will do nominations and ECG will supply the power to be paid for by the Concessionaire.

ECG will sell all capacity and energy made available under the Portfolio PPAs to the Concessionaire, in exchange for payment by the company of all capacity and energy charges on a back-to-back basis.