Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, Minister of Energy and Green Transition, has called for greater efficiency, financial discipline and customer-focused service delivery in Ghana’s electricity distribution sector.
He made the call at the launch of ECG’s 2025–2029 Corporate Strategy in Accra.
Mr Jinapor said the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) 2025–2029 Corporate Strategy signalled a renewed commitment to modernise the distribution sub-sector and strengthen financial sustainability.
He stated that the strategy reflected a renewed commitment to modernising the electricity distribution sector, improving efficiency, ensuring financial viability and building a customer?centred utility capable of supporting national development.
“The strategy represents a lot of renewed commitment to Ghana’s electricity sector, particularly the distribution sub-sector, so that we can modernise the sector, bring about efficiency, ensure financial viability and sustainability, but more importantly build a customer-centred utility capable of powering our national development,” he said.
The Minister noted that Ghana’s power sector was at a critical moment as electricity demand continued to grow due to economic expansion, urbanisation and the emergence of new industries.
He said the global transition towards sustainable and clean energy also required innovative approaches and stronger reforms within the sector.
Mr Jinapor stressed that electricity tariff adjustments should be considered in the context of ensuring sustainability within the sector rather than attributing them solely to external conditions such as the International Monetary Fund programme.
He said failure to honour government subsidies or unpaid tariffs could weaken ECG’s financial position and increase borrowing costs across the power value chain.
“When you tell me to subsidise, make alternative arrangements to pay for that subsidy. Inefficiencies in revenue collection often result in honest consumers paying for electricity consumed by others,” he said.
Mr Jinapor urged ECG to intensify efforts to improve revenue mobilisation, reduce system losses and enhance service delivery.
He said government was also considering new approaches to revenue assurance, including private sector participation in revenue collection under arrangements that would guarantee agreed targets.
The Minister also emphasised the need for government institutions to pay their electricity bills to support the financial stability of the sector.
“Government agencies must also do what the private sector is doing. They budget to buy cars and food and pay telephone bills. They should also budget and pay for electricity,” he said.
Mr Jinapor disclosed that the government was working with the Ministry of Finance to support the procurement and installation of about 1,500 transformers to replace obsolete and overloaded equipment across the electricity distribution network.
He said the deployment of the transformers, expected to begin from the end of March, might cause temporary service interruptions but would ultimately improve reliability and reduce localised outages.
The Minister assured the public of the government’s commitment to strengthening power supply reliability, advancing energy transition, improving the financial health of the sector, expanding renewable energy and modernising electricity infrastructure.
Mr Julius Kpekpena, Acting Managing Director of ECG, said strategic planning had guided the operations of the company since 1988 and had played a critical role in responding to the evolving challenges of electricity distribution.
He said the previous corporate strategy covering 2021 to 2024, adopted after the post-PDS era, had ended, making a new strategic direction necessary to reposition the company for sustainable growth.
Mr Kpekpena said despite improvements under the previous strategy, ECG continued to face operational and financial challenges, including inadequate revenue collection, high system losses and increasing upstream costs.
He said management introduced reforms in 2025 to stabilise operations and strengthen financial discipline.
The measures included strengthening regulatory compliance, deploying enterprise-wide digital systems to improve transparency and accountability, and introducing initiatives to enhance revenue mobilisation and system reliability.
Mr Kpekpena said the reforms had produced measurable improvements, including a 40 per cent increase in revenue collection, a 50 per cent reduction in overhead costs at the headquarters and the adoption of an enterprise resource planning system to support integrated operations.
He said the 2025–2029 Corporate Strategy was anchored on five key priorities: cost reduction, revenue improvement, system loss reduction, outage reduction and improvement in customer experience.
“These priorities will guide resource allocation, operational planning and performance management across the company,” he said.
Dr William Amuna, Board Chairman of ECG, said the new strategy would provide the policy framework to guide management decisions, resource allocation and institutional accountability over the next five years.
He said financial sustainability remained central to the company’s direction and called for strong revenue assurance systems to ensure that electricity supplied translated into revenue collected.
Dr Amuna said the strategy also emphasised infrastructure modernisation, improved use of technology, stronger accountability systems and enhanced engagement with customers and stakeholders.
He urged staff, government, regulators and consumers to support the implementation of the strategy to strengthen ECG’s role in delivering reliable electricity services to support national development.