Ghana’s energy sector: A reform agenda that deserves recognition and results- IMANI AFRICA

Ghana’s energy sector has endured years of financial distress, mounting liabilities, distribution losses, expensive power contracts and infrastructure deficits.

Successive administrations have confronted these difficulties, often with considerable political promises and insufficient structural remedies. The real challenge has never been identifying the problems. It has been finding the courage to confront them.

Our recent engagement with the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition offered encouraging evidence of a government attempting to address these structural weaknesses through financial discipline, institutional reform, technological innovation and strategic investment.

On 26 October 2026, IMANI Africa’s Centre for Policy and Education (CPE) delegation, led by President Franklin Cudjoe, Vice President Selorm Branttie, and associates John Sitsofe Mensah, Dennis Asare and Kay Codjoe, held substantive discussions with the Minister, Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, and his Ministry. Richard Gyan-Mensah serves as Deputy Minister.

What emerged was a reform agenda that deserves recognition, careful examination and sustained public support where the evidence justifies it.

Perhaps the most encouraging development concerns financial management.

ECG’s reported after-tax losses declined from GH¢8.26 billion in 2024 to GH¢2.52 billion in 2025, an improvement of approximately 69.5%. That is a significant movement in the right direction, although the contribution of operational efficiency, exchange-rate changes and other financial adjustments requires proper separation.

The Minister also explained improvements in revenue declaration under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, reportedly moving from approximately 40% to full declaration.

This represents an important administrative reform. For years, inadequate financial visibility complicated the distribution of electricity revenues among sector participants. Improved declaration offers a stronger foundation for payment discipline, transparency and investor confidence.

Of course, declaring revenue is different from collecting every outstanding bill. The Ministry appears to recognise that distinction.

Its proposed restructuring of ECG through private-sector participation is therefore particularly interesting.

Rather than repeating a single nationwide concession model, the Ministry is considering dividing distribution operations into approximately four zones, with performance-based contracts, Ghanaian equity participation and opportunities for domestic pension capital.

The thinking deserves serious consideration.

Properly structured, such an arrangement could encourage operational competition, improve collections, introduce modern technology and create opportunities for Ghanaian investors to participate in a strategically important industry.

The essential safeguards must remain clear: transparent procurement, fair risk allocation, measurable performance obligations and protection of public assets.

The Ministry’s attention to electricity distribution losses is equally encouraging.

With ECG’s 2024 system losses recorded at 27.05%, the approximately 23% figure discussed during our engagement suggests the possibility of meaningful improvement, subject to independent confirmation.

More importantly, the proposed remedies address the underlying causes.

Smart metering, remote consumption monitoring, transformer-level energy accounting and the reduction of manual cash handling could substantially improve billing accuracy and expose electricity theft.

These are practical reforms. Electricity already generated and distributed should not disappear into defective accounting systems, illegal connections and avoidable commercial losses.

Infrastructure renewal also featured prominently.

The Ministry discussed approximately 1,500 transformer interventions, including replacements and refurbishments, alongside efforts to strengthen domestic engineering capacity.

The proposal to track decommissioned transformers by serial number and refurbish suitable units locally could reduce costs while supporting Ghanaian technical enterprises.

Equally significant was the Minister’s recognition that inadequate transmission investment could threaten electricity reliability within approximately two years.

Acknowledging that risk early creates an opportunity to mobilise financing before infrastructure weaknesses become another national emergency.

The green-transition agenda also reflects promising policy direction.

The Ministry outlined plans for utility-scale battery storage, greater rooftop solar adoption and a shift towards solar streetlighting.

Battery storage could improve grid flexibility and help manage electricity demand across different periods. Distributed solar could reduce pressure on conventional supply while opening commercial opportunities for households and small businesses.

The Minister’s concern about customs treatment of separately imported solar components was especially welcome.

If verified, the reported disparity between complete solar kits and individual batteries or inverters deserves correction. Ghana cannot credibly encourage renewable-energy entrepreneurship while maintaining avoidable administrative obstacles to the equipment entrepreneurs need.

Streetlighting reforms offer another opportunity for better public service.

The proposed movement towards solar installations and performance-based maintenance contracts could reduce recurring electricity costs, limit cable theft and establish clearer responsibility for keeping public roads illuminated.

The Ministry’s renewed emphasis on procurement discipline also deserves attention. Historical ECG procurement commitments reportedly reached GH¢9.8 billion against a GH¢1.8 billion budget, although the figures require reconciliation. The reported effort to prioritise essential expenditure is sensible. Financial discipline should become an institutional standard rather than depend on the restraint of individual officeholders.

Upstream petroleum has not been neglected either. The Ministry’s interest in reviewing exploration incentives, attracting investment and addressing contractual disputes recognises the need to restore confidence in Ghana’s petroleum industry.

Our assessment is encouraging, but the next phase must be about measurable delivery.

The Ministry should publish a consolidated performance report covering revenue recovery, distribution losses, transformer interventions, transmission investment, renewable-energy projects and procurement reforms.

IMANI should support a 90-day accountability framework that allows the Ministry to substantiate its achievements, clarify outstanding questions and establish measurable commitments.

Dr Jinapor’s emerging reform agenda deserves a fair hearing. The direction is promising, particularly its emphasis on financial discipline, technology, private investment and infrastructure renewal.

Ghanaians do not need another catalogue of attractive energy policies. They need reliable electricity, a financially sustainable sector, opportunities for local enterprise and public expenditure that produces visible results.

If these reforms are implemented with discipline and transparency, the Ministry could help move Ghana’s energy sector from recurring financial rescue towards lasting institutional recovery.

That would be an achievement worth recognising, defending and sustaining.