Following the resignation of Keli Gadzekpo as the Board Chair of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Benjamin Boakye, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has underscored the need to have a capable and experienced person to led the energy sector.
Mr. Gadzekpo has been replaced by Deputy Energy Minister, Herbert Krapa whose primary objective is to address the recent power outages plaguing the nation.
In an interview on Citi FM, Mr. Boakye expressed apprehension about challenges in the energy sector particularly in an election year.
He underscored the need to reduce the burden on both the state and the people of Ghana and encouraged Mr. Krapa to seek guidance and devise solutions to the sector’s issues.
With essential service budgets in jeopardy, Mr. Boakye said there is the need to take prudent decisions to prevent resources from being diverted from vital sectors like education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
Acknowledging the complexities associated with decision-making in an election year, he urged Krapa to cautiously navigate the impending challenges.
“I think at this point we want to hope that if he doesn’t understand how the sector works, it will take time to appreciate his job at this point, to understand that the liability on the state is in the exchange of experience, and therefore we need a skilled hand to be able to reverse the trend and reduce the burden on the state and on the people of Ghana.”
“We need to take time to appreciate that he’ll seek counsel and be able to work to reduce that burden, and that’s what we’ve been fighting for over this year so that the budget that is supposed to go to the schools, to the hospitals, the road infrastructure, protecting the vulnerable is not used to repay for the electricity that has been consumed. Considering the timing, I don’t know, it’s an election year where historically, the power sector has struggled to make sound decisions so I don’t know how he’ll be able to navigate that within this period.”
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