On March 9, 2025, 1:05 AM
The President of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has urged the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, to embrace private participation in the energy sector to minimize government interference and political influence in its management.
According to him, the issues surrounding the Power Distribution Services (PDS) agreement during the previous administration were not due to inefficiencies in PDS’s operations but rather corruption-related actions by individuals in government who sought personal financial gains from the deal.
Speaking on Saturday, March 8, he stated that PDS had actually performed well in managing the sector, and a comparison of data before and after its withdrawal shows that its impact on the energy sector was largely positive.
He, therefore, suggested that the government reconsider reintroducing a similar private-sector partnership to ensure efficiency and sustainability in the energy sector.
He cautioned against the constant management changes whenever there is a change in government, emphasizing that such decisions do not necessarily lead to improvements.
“I think we need to change this approach. The belief that replacing management will lead to better performance is flawed. Among all the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), I’m yet to see one that has significantly improved simply because management was changed. The issue is that those in charge are not given the freedom to operate independently, and that is a major problem,” he stated.
Mr. Cudjoe urged the Energy Minister to review PDS’s performance data and consider reviving private sector participation based on its merits.
“The PDS agreement became problematic due to corruption-related matters, but it was not an issue of PDS’s operational efficiency. PDS delivered on its mandate effectively. I urge the Minister to carefully analyse the data from that period and ask himself whether a similar initiative could yield positive results again,” he said.
He further emphasized that the energy sector should not be subjected to political interference, where each new government introduces fresh projects for personal or party-driven interests.
“The way we handle governance in this country is ridiculous. Every time there is a new government, someone pushes their pet project, and this is destroying the country. I do not believe any government appointee will have the free hand to run the sector independently. As long as our political system remains as it is, this will not change. That is why I strongly believe in private sector participation. However, we should not start from scratch but rather analyse the PDS data and compare it to our current state before making any decisions,” he said.