Former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama, has strongly disputed claims that the company is experiencing commercial and technical losses as high as 40%.
These claims were recently made by President John Dramani Mahama and Energy Minister-designate John Jinapor, who attributed the significant losses to factors such as aging infrastructure, theft, and poor revenue collection.
However, in an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s “The Point of View,” Mahama challenged these figures. He argued that the reported losses were primarily a result of challenges associated with recent changes in management and collection inefficiencies.
Mahama pointed out that the official documents indicate a loss range of 26% to 37%, highlighting the impact of these management changes on revenue collection. He also emphasized the time lag between electricity sales and revenue collection, stating that accurate loss assessments require a complete analysis of revenue collection cycles.
“The 40% that is being brandished around is not a fair description of the losses,” Mahama stated. “The document you purportedly sighted gives a base of 26% to 37%. That is because, within the year 2023, there was change management being implemented. Yes, the collection went down, but the funny thing is that, that year too, they collected more than GHC14 billion from the previous year [2022].”
Mahama urged caution in accepting the reported loss figures, emphasizing the need for a thorough and comprehensive analysis before drawing definitive conclusions.
