VRA and GRIDCo Set to Join State Entities Up for Sale Amid Power Crisis Chaos

The Akufo-Addo government’s bold move to sell off the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) to private interests is causing rifts between government officials and senior management within the entities.

This plan comes during a time of intermittent power outages, known as ‘dum sor’, with controversies over supply bottlenecks and blame games among key players in the energy sector.

The proposed privatization of VRA and GRIDCo has gained attention following a call from Asantehene, Otumfuor Osei Tutu, supported by the Finance Minister’s energy think-tank the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).

The call by the Otumfuor, and secondment of same by ACEP, the energy think-tank founded by current Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam. have since been a source of curiosity about the future of GRIDCo and VRA.

If privatized, these entities will join a growing list of state-owned enterprises that the government has put up for sale, including recent sales of AirtelTigo and plans for the Graphic Communication Group to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Details about the intended sale of the nation’s valued assets are scanty, as the companies’ boardroom ‘wars’ over the viability of the idea amidst concerns from workers who have eavesdrop on the conversation.

It would be recalled that recently, Energy Minister, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, sided with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in a very public blame game between ECG and GRIDCo over who really is the cause of the current spell of dumsor, even though the erstwhile Mahama government had ended the phenomenon before leaving office in 2017.

According Mr. Opoku Prempeh and the ECG, the cause of dumsor is supply bottlenecks on the side of GRIDCo, something GRIDCo had refuted

With public and private companies alike facing challenges under the current government’s obvious mismanagement,  the future of Ghana’s energy sector remains uncertain amidst these privatization manoeuvres.

In 2023, the government announced intent to sell off assets of 17 state-owned enterprises saying they had become defunct. These included the assets of the Aboso Glass Factory, the Bolgatanga Meat Factory, Ghana Consolidated Diamond, the Ghana Food Production Corporation and the State Construction Company.

It is worth noting that it is not only public entities that have been rundown under the current government; private companies are also folding up and leaving town. They include The list includes Glovo delivery services, JUMIA Foods, GAME – shopping centre in the Accra Mall, Dark and Lovely Ghana, BET365, and Nivea Ghana.