ECG Should Remain a Public Entity – PUWU
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ECG Should Remain a Public Entity – PUWU
Ghana’s Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU), part of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), is throwing its weight behind calls for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to stay firmly in public hands.
PUWU General Secretary Timothy Nyame didn’t hold back when addressing the World Bank’s push for privatisation, describing it on TV3’s Daily Brief as “disingenuous” and an “insult to Ghanaians.”
For Nyame, this isn’t a new debate. He pointed to Ghana’s track record with past privatisation efforts tied to World Bank and IMF conditionalities, arguing they simply haven’t delivered the benefits they promised.
PUWU totally associates themselves with the press release. We have seen all that has happened with the World Bank and IMF conditionalities on privatisation of state institutions. What have we derived from it? he said.
Nyame made a point of highlighting real improvements he’s seen within ECG since President John Dramani Mahama took office, and he was clear about who deserves credit for that progress the people already running the company.
I can recall that in the time His Excellency, the President assumed office, the power sector issues were key to his heart. And as you recall, the team that he put in place, the Board of Directors together with the workers of ECG have turned around the fortunes of this organisation, he said.
His message to government has been consistent, according to him: keep ECG public. That is what we have been reminding government of. In which we have asked government to also assist us that ECG should remain a public entity, he added.
Nyame also took issue with recent comments from the World Bank’s Country Director, who suggested that private sector involvement in ECG would be limited to revenue collection.
For the World Bank Country Director to say it is only in revenue collection, we see it as disingenuous and an insult to Ghanaians, he said.
PUWU’s stance aligns closely with the wider TUC-Ghana position, which has firmly rejected proposed private sector participation (PSP) in the operations of both ECG and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo). The union has signalled it’s prepared to pursue every legal avenue available to oppose the plan, which it believes would shift significant operational control away from the two state-owned distributors and into private hands.
In a statement issued on September 8, 2026, the TUC directly challenged remarks made by World Bank Country Director Dr Adrian Alter, who had described the proposed private sector arrangement as involving “only revenue collection” during an appearance on Channel One Television on August 24, 2026.
According to the TUC, that description doesn’t match the actual model put forward by the Transaction Advisor appointed at the World Bank and IMF’s request.
Contrary to the Bank’s explanation, the Transaction Advisor appointed at the instance of the Bank and its sister institution, the IMF, has proposed a model in which private operators will assume responsibility for electricity distribution from the Bulk Supply Points to the final customer, the union said.
Under this proposed model, ECG and NEDCo would technically retain ownership of their distribution assets, but private operators would lease and run the networks taking on responsibilities like billing, revenue collection, customer management, network maintenance, and loss reduction.
For the TUC, that’s a much bigger shift than “revenue collection only” suggests. The World Bank is aware of this model. It is shocking for the Bank to say otherwise. And it is even more disingenuous for the Bank to claim that ECG is not going to be privatised, the union stated.
The TUC also pushed back on the broader argument that greater private sector involvement would automatically translate into better electricity access, particularly in rural communities a claim the union sees as far from guaranteed.
