\n
\u201cThat is not sustainable,\u201d he stressed. \u201cEven if you are doing 15%, that is very high. With that level of losses, in economics, you cannot talk about realistic pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that such losses cannot be passed on to consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot pass on all those losses to the ultimate consumer. It doesn\u2019t make sense economically or socially.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also highlighted collection losses of close to 15%, which he again called \u201cabove world average\u201d and \u201cnot sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Bokpin painted a bleak picture of power sector management, where key state agencies and sensitive installations do not pay for their electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou heard the minister saying that it\u2019s about time ministries, departments, and agencies take responsibility for their energy consumption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He cited claims from the public about odd electricity use patterns.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody once reminded me, have I noticed where ice blocks come from in this country for pure water sellers? Somebody said, probably from police stations. I\u2019m not saying this is true, but it tells you what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said when unpaid bills by ministries, departments, and agencies are combined with technical and collection losses, \u201cthere is no way we can see a future in this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, in the midst of all this, politicians are promising more. \u201cThat\u2019s why I don\u2019t understand the upbeat tone from government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere you have a government talking about a 24-hour economy, and we are struggling to run an 8-hour one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He insisted the current model of ECG operations is broken and called for private sector participation in the downstream distribution chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we should all support government in some kind of private sector participation. That doesn\u2019t mean selling ECG. Government can still be the sole shareholder,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we should be able to invite the private sector into the distribution of power and collection. That will bring in capital and private sector efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that such reform is already tied to Ghana\u2019s ongoing IMF-supported program. \u201cThere are structural reforms under the IMF program. And there are clear indicators government has to meet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the Cabinet is expected to decide on ECG\u2019s future and urged open communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government must communicate this clearly to Ghanaians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Prof. Bokpin concluded that slogans like the 24-hour economy are merely political theatre unless the root problems are addressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Economist Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin has cast doubt on the National Democratic Congress\u2019 (NDC) 24-hour economy proposal, calling it unrealistic in light of ongoing energy challenges. Speaking on Joy News\u2019\u00a0Newsfile\u00a0on Saturday, May 17, he said the country cannot even sustain a reliable 8-hour energy cycle, yet politicians are promising a 24-hour system. \u201cYou are not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":11033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3525,3537],"tags":[3060,3538],"class_list":["post-11032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-energy","tag-energy","tag-godfred-alufar-bokpin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11034,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032\/revisions\/11034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}