News:
March 24, 2026
John Abdullai Jinapor says the state-owned power distributor has refocused its budget on critical infrastructure after years of excessive cable spending.
The Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Abdullai Jinapor, has announced a major shift in procurement strategy for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), moving away from stockpiling cables to prioritize transformers and meters.
Speaking before the Governance Assurances Committee, Jinapor revealed that under previous management, ECG spent a substantial 9.3 billion cedis on cables in 2024 alone, despite there being no shortage of such supplies.
This year, the company is operating with a reduced budget of 1.8 billion cedis, prompting a strict focus on what the minister described as “real essential items.”
“They’re now prioritizing two line items: transformers and meters,” Jinapor stated, adding that the Ministry is adopting the same focused approach.
The minister also addressed the issue of meter management, clarifying that meters are state property and should not be treated as commodities for sale.
“We have a lot of meters. Meters are not supposed to be sold but are rather the properties of the state. But I’m happy that, based on the new instruction that I gave them, they’re really refocused,” he said.
Jinapor assured the committee that the renewed focus would soon translate into tangible improvements for consumers. He announced that by the end of this month, a “massive, large-scale replacement of transformers” will begin.
“The people will see real reliability when it comes to supply of electricity, particularly at the distribution level,” he added.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com