The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has opined that the defunct Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal collapsed due to greed and political interference.
Mr Jinapor noted that while the idea of involving the private sector in power distribution was not inherently flawed, the implementation of the PDS failed because
Of selfish interests.
He made the remarks while taking his turn at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.
“We are not going to use the PDS approach in bringing in the private sector. PDS was not a bad approach in terms of private sector involvement. The only bad thing was that a few greedy individuals decided to cannibalise the process and to sell the shares among themselves,” he said.
“If they had started what we are doing now—ensuring value for money, a competitive process, and less political interference—even in its bad form, we saw that the revenue of ECG was increasing. So, it means that if we do it better, then we can get real results,” he added.
He reiterated that the government was taking steps to allow private sector participation in the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and not to sell the entity.
“I have assured you that we would not get involved in the shares of the new private involvement,” he said, insisting that transparency and accountability would be at the heart of the new initiative.
The takeover of Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited was a contentious deal. In March 2019, the government awarded PDS a 25-year concession to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
However, the deal was suspended in July 2019 due to allegations of fraud. PDS had submitted invalid insurance guarantees, which included forged signatures and fake letters.
The concession was cancelled, and the $190 million funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Power Compact was suspended, hindering Ghana’s energy sector reform efforts.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
