The President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has issued a strong caution against questionable deals in the potential privatization of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Franklin Cudjoe voiced his opposition to what he described as chronic capitalist arrangements in the proposed privatization process. His comments come in response to President John Dramani Mahama’s commitment to privatizing power distribution in Ghana to enhance efficiency in the energy sector.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV, hosted by Selorm Adonoo, Cudjoe warned against repeating past mistakes involving similar arrangements.
He specifically cited the 5G transition overseen by the former Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, accusing her of engaging in what he described as a “corrupt arrangement” that allegedly devalued Ghana’s 5G network through collusion with her associates.
Cudjoe emphasized the need for transparency and accountability to ensure that the privatization process benefits the country rather than serving the interests of a select few.
“We need to characterise these kinds of privatisation that take place on the continent, especially in this part of our world, it’s not proper privatisation. I call it chronic capitalist privatisation, I mean all sorts of arrangements are made between whoever is offloading the shares from the public sector to whoever is buying the private sector. And it’s just plain thievery. I mean chronic capitalist plunder. Especially the likes of what Ursula [Owusu-Ekuful] engaged in recently in the Communication sector.
“She claimed she’s done 5G, very corrupt arrangements where she virtually had all these cronies downgrade the value of the 5G network. Yanked it off from MTN which should have paid close to $500 million for it. And then she gave it freely to some entity which she claimed she got for $125 million. They shared the thing [money], you can’t fathom this whole thing.
“You ask her she said she has done her work of 5G. Do we have 5G as we speak? That kind of arrangement is a chronic capitalist arrangement. I mean a very shady arrangement. We don’t want to see that in the power sector.”
“The National Democratic Congress (NDC) should go ahead and make sure that this is [privatisation] done transparently. Whoever is procuring must have the backing of the financial muscle. And they [investor] must be given all the data.”
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