The Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr. Shafic Suleman, called for sustained collaboration to help better serve the interests of consumers and utility service providers. The call was made when Dr. Shafic Suleman and Management of PURC met the Managing Director and Management of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on March 18, 2025, at the ECG Head Office.
According to Dr. Suleman, a range of drivers – ongoing advances in technology, evolving customer demand, regulatory pressures and climate change, to name but a few – are making collaboration between the regulator and utility service providers not just increasingly logical but also more desirable.
Dr. Suleman indicated that there has already been some engagements between PURC and ECG which has yielded impactful outcomes, and he expects the relationship to continue. He advised the two institutions to increase collaboration, proactiveness and transparency towards each other.
The Director of Finance and Administration of PURC (Mr. Wallace Duodu) encouraged ECG to provide a receptive atmosphere for the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit team, which pays annual visits to ECG to audit their operations.
The PURC Director of Regional Operations and Consumer Services (Alhaji Abukari Jabaru) indicated a challenge with poor attitudinal engagements of some ECG district officers towards consumers. This has been one of the triggers for ECG’s inefficient revenue collection and performance, which needs to be urgently addressed.
The PURC Director of Water Services and Performance Monitoring (Ing. Emmanuel Wayo Fiati) encouraged ECG to pay critical attention to its inefficiencies stemming from power distribution losses, as improvements in this direction will greatly benefit the entire power sector value chain.
The PURC Director in charge of Energy Services and Performance Monitoring (Ing. Fred Oblitey), applauded ECG’s receptiveness when it comes to technical reliability monitoring processes, for which they have demonstrated a cordial relationship with the PURC team. He encouraged ECG to portray a similar attitude for any other data request from PURC in future.
The Managing Director of ECG, (Ing. Kwame Kpekpena) acknowledged and praised PURC’s efforts at building strong and collaborative relationships which will benefit the power sector in both the short and long run. The PURC's intentional efforts to assist resolve ECG’s challenges with the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) forex fluctuations are well appreciated and applauded.
Among some concerns raised by the ECG management were:
- ECG currently bears the cost of meter maintenance instead of consumers. This has been causing financial loss to the company. ECG, therefore, appealed to PURC to assist in addressing the issue.
- Ghana Water Limited (GWL) is indebted to ECG, and all efforts to get this settlement have proven futile.
- IPPs still bill ECG for idle capacity, although the Government had promised to take up this cost.
The PURC management assured ECG of taking up the issues raised and to discuss them further with ECG and other policy makers or Stakeholders in the power sector value chain to provide feasible solutions to address them.
Dr. Suleman reiterated that effective collaboration between PURC and ECG is essential for delivering high-quality services, addressing consumer grievances, and promoting transparency and accountability in the Electricity, Water, and Gas Sectors.
