PDS deal collapsed because of poor handling and selfish interests – Mahama

The President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama has shared his thought on the issue surrounding the failed Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession by saying that the initiative itself didn’t have a problem but it was rather mismanaged and compromised by someone’s own interest.

Looking back at what we learned from the Power Distribution Services (PDS) experience, President John Dramani Mahama stated that “Power Distribution Services was not a bad thing, it is just that it was handled wrongly and a lot of people had personal interest in Power Distribution Services (PDS) and I think that’s why it failed.”

As per President John Dramani Mahama, the various staff was suppose to focus on the idea of involving private companies in public utilities and because they failed to do so it resulted in the concession being collapsed. President Mahama drew to attention the potential benefits of allowing private companies to help out especially in the utility services. He pointed to some examples where things now work faster and better.

President Mahama talked about what happened with Enclave Power, which purchases bulk electricity from the national utility and distributes it around the free zones area managing to collect 99% of payment and uninterrupted power supply.

He said that “ The light are always on in the industrial area and due to that the industries have high ratio of power and they don’t see blackout the way other places do.”

He emphasized that the participation of the private sector would improve electricity supply and water services as well. President Mahama cited that this will demonstrate the value of strategic partnership between public and private companies.

The issue with Power Distribution Services (PDS) came up after the Government of Ghana terminated the contract which was part of the Second Millennium Challenge Corporate (MCC) of the country and it was because of some uncovered issues in the financial guarantees of the company.

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