NPP gov’t will wipe fortunes of GRIDCO, VRA on GSE move – Omane Boamah

A former Communications Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah wants the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Ghanaians to fight against government’s decision of listing both GRIDCO and the VRA on the Ghana stock exchange (GSE).

According to him, the move being considered on the two major entities in the energy sector by government will frustrate the prospects of the companies, insisting that this will lead the way to eventual privatization of the companies by the Akufo-Addo-led administration.

President Nana Akufo-Addo in his maiden state of the nation address indicated that listing the VRA and GRIDCO on the local bourse will be one of the many options to be considered by his administration.

According to the President, the move should improve the financial strength of the institutions and eventually transform the power sector to propel economic growth.

But speaking on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme Saturday, Dr. Omane Boamah said government has the interest of privatizing GRIDCO and VRA under the pretext of listing them on the local bourse.

“What kind of promises, subtly, covertly was not given to the ECG workers on the Compact 2 and all? Today Compact 2 is not bad, Compact 2 is not going to be thrown away, but within the same Energy sector we are looking at GRIDCO and VRA being listed. When the NPP talks about listing, I say it is an euphemism for privatization,” he argued.

He said such a move by government wreaks danger for GRIDCO and VRA and will worsen the state of the two companies, should government be allowed to list them on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

He urged Ghanaians at large to take a cue from the state of Ghana Telecom now Vodafone and fight against such moves.

“…As someone who has been in the Telecom sector before and having appreciated how the same of Ghana Telecom has not benefited this nation; if I tell you that from 2007 till date Ghana has not received one pesewa as dividend from our 30% shares of Ghana telecom.

“But if that is bad enough then the worst story is that we owe the company. And that indebtedness is beyond USD 250 million. If we do not pay, we should forget about that 30%. It would be diluted to either 0 or some paltry 1%. So it started from 100%, 70% was given off, no dividend has been paid, we have 30% shares in it. We owe at this stage and that indebtedness is enough to wipe our 30% shares.

“And that is why I say every Ghanaian, the Trade Union Congress(TUC) that fought very hard against the privatization of Ghana Telecom must be wild awake about these incursion that is being made into GRIDCO and VRA.”