Keli Gadzekpo, has resigned as the board chairman of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) effective April 9, 2024.
In a letter to President Akufo-Addo yesterday Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Mr Gadzekpo, cited personal reasons for his decision to resign.
Keli is the second board chairman of the ECG to resign from the position under similar circumstances.
The first was Tony Oteng Gyasi, the current Board Chair of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). He resigned as chairman of the ECG board in September 2014, when the power sector was going through challenges during the John Mahama administration.
Asaase Radio reports that, Keli thanked the president for the opportunity to serve the country for the past seven years “in this significant role”.
Gadzekpo, also wished ECG and the government continued success in the effort to provide stable electricity for the country.
ECG has in recent days been in the news for reasons including dubious exchange rates, audit reports that say that certain payments were made far in excess of what was expected, running about 35 Bank accounts, Dumsor among others.
In the middle of these, the Minister of Energy has angered electricity consumers on the absence of a timetable for the load-shedding saying there was none, adding those who deemed it necessary should create their own thing.
He called such persons “evil”.
Interestingly, the Public Utility Services Regulation Commission (PURC), had issued a directive to the ECG management to issue the load-shedding timetable.
The minister’s stance conflicts with the PURC.
He told journalists: “Ask those who want it to bring it, if there is. I haven’t seen any timetable.”
NAPO, had earlier denied that the country has returned to the days of Dumsor, as the erratic power supply in the country under John Dramani Mahama was referred to.
“If we are comparing four years, four years, NPP administration energy sector is 300 times better than John Mahama… it’s far much better than John Mahama ever did… “I’ve promised you that we are going to work on it and it’s not a work that is a single event; it’s a process, and we’ll continue to work on it for the energy sector to become better,” he stated.
Following the uproar, Kofi Abrefa Afena, a spokesperson for the Energy Ministry, in a statement issued yesterday on March 26, affirmed that the minister’s stance reiterated the government’s dismissal of the necessity for a “load management timetable.”
According to him, this position, as indicated by the ECG, is based on ongoing efforts to address the root causes of the temporary power challenges.
The statement said the Energy Ministry stated that the Minister has “always been sensitive to the plight of the Ghanaian people and continues to ask for their forbearance, as has always been the case when challenges relative to power stability emerge.”
The statement said “The Ministry of Energy has taken notice of the spin around an interview granted Joy News by Energy Minister, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh on the margins of the inauguration of the New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti Regional Campaign Team last Sunday.
“The rather innocuous statements of the Minister as captured by the Interview have been distorted to portray him as being insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and thus, we wish to avert the minds of Ghanaians to the context of the Interview and clarify as follows:
It said that “the Minister dismissed the need for a load management timetable because in his view and as indicated by the Electricity Company of Ghana, the causes of the temporary power challenges are being addressed. The Minister in the clip said, “Addressing the issues is not an event” which is rightly so.
“The Minister’s comparison of the current energy sector to the one under former President John Mahama, where Ghanaians reeled under pervasive ‘Dumsor’ for 4 years, comes on the back of recent similar calls in the media space by the NDC Flagbearer for a load management time table. This call, in the view of the Minister is borne out of the quest to score cheap political points. In fact, a careful listen of the interview will show that, the comparative template was set by the interviewer”, the statement stated.
“In the said clip, the Minister is clearly seen straining his voice because of the obviously noisy background, in order to be heard by his interviewer. This has unfortunately been misconstrued. Dr. Prempeh is known to be very media-friendly.
“The Ministry wishes to assure the general public that the Ministry as the policy maker and mother agency of the various power sector actors is working assiduously with these agencies to ensure that the temporary challenges are resolved.
Mr Gadzekpo, is an entrepreneur who has helped build several companies, notable among them, the Databank Group of Companies which includes Databank Asset Management Services and Databank Epack Investment Fund Ltd with over two decades of experience in investment banking.
He is also the Chairman of the Databank Foundation, which is the corporate social responsibility arm of the Databank Group.
Mr Gadzekpo, is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Enterprise Group Limited which has many subsidiaries, including Enterprise Life, Enterprise Trustees and Enterprise Properties.
With a BSc in Accounting from Brigham University in the US, he is also a qualified Certified Public Accountant (CPA) from the USA where he worked with KPMG Peat Marwick in the Washington DC office and with Stuart Petroleum in different capacities.
He is a Mason Fellow from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he obtained a Master’s in Public Administration.
Aside from ECG, Mr Gadzekpo, also serves on the Boards of the Bank of Ghana, the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), an NGO involved in the development of rural ecotourism and community-protected areas as a means of aiding economic development and resource conservation.
