A shocking revelation has emerged in Ghana’s energy sector, with Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin accusing officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Customs Officers of colluding to sell missing containers of cables at the port.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday, March 28, Afenyo-Markin questioned the disappearance of the containers despite the bureaucratic processes in place at the port.
“How come containers at the port that have arrived, the bureaucracy at our ports, they said the containers are missing? Mr. Speaker, it is true that when these containers come, there’s some connivance with some customs officials. And they sell these containers of cables that ECG needs after the supplier has been paid.”
Afenyo-Markin further alleged that the cables are then resold to ECG, urging lawmakers to focus on addressing the issue rather than politicizing it.
“They sell the containers, and people resell to ECG. Are we pretending we don’t know? Instead of us paying attention to it and killing the rot, then we come here and then NPP, NDC, maybe it happened under NPP, it happened under NDC. No.”
The Minority Leader assured Energy Minister John Jinapor of their support in tackling the issue.
“Hon. Energy Minister [John Jinapor], I know what you can do if we can give you support to do it. You must adopt a non-partisan posture and tackle the rot. But if we all want to approach it NPP, NDC, then Mr. Speaker, it will remain.”
In a related development, Minister Jinapor announced a drastic reduction in ECG’s budget, from GH₵500 million to GH₵250 million, in an effort to clear debts owed to power producers.
Jinapor disclosed that ECG exceeded its budget by GH₵7.3 billion in 2023, mainly due to cable procurement.
“We have reduced their budget from GH₵500 million to GH₵250 million. Because we must pay the power producers. Today, the bill is over GH₵80 billion in the energy sector. If we don’t do something, this sector will collapse. As a minister, I am determined to do my bid no matter how difficult it is,” he stated.