The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has officially launched its 50th Anniversary celebration in a brief ceremony at their head office in Accra.
The celebration which is under the theme, ‘50 years of powering the socio-economic growth and development of Ghana’ involves series of activities dedicated to the month of February to show appreciation to patrons nationwide.
The launch saw some staff of the ECG clad in their 50th anniversary print apparel, solidarity messages from sister companies including, Nedco, VRA, Gridco, and a captivating cultural performance.
Speaking at the launch, Managing Director, Electricity Company of Ghana, Samuel Boakye-Appiah outlined numerous accomplishments of the organization since its inception in 1967.
He mentioned gargantuan achievements ranging from their ability to recover from the 2012-2016 power outages which tainted the company’s image drastically, to training engineers from Afghanistan on the recommendation of the World Bank.
“Over the past 50 years, ECG has chalked major successes and also gone through various challenges. By far, the worst challenge in recent memory was the protracted power crisis of 2012-2016. With the necessary political, financial and technical interventions, the crisis was resolved last year and ECG is back on its feet,’ he said.
In recognition of the valuable human capital we have created over the past 50 years, Engineers from Afghanistan were trained by ECG on the recommendation of the World Bank in the last quarter of 2017.During the same period, the Rwandan Electricity Board visited ECG to learn about best Utility Practices,” he added.
Board member of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Keli Gadzekpo commended the Company for working tirelessly over the years to provide Ghanaians with adequate power supply and advised that they shouldn't expect appreciation from Ghanaians for their good work done.
He mentioned that although the company went through major challenges some few years back, they managed to bounce back stronger making their effective production manifest in the current state of power supply in the country.
He said the fact that Ghanaians were silent about activities of the ECG meant they were doing something right.
“When things are going okay, and ECG is performing very well, nobody really gives a thought. Nobody comes to the radio station to say “I have had power in my house seven days, 24 hours, congratulations ECG”. Nobody does that. If you like take power for one hour. So I have come to see that we are serving a public that silence from them can be interpreted as gratefulness", he said.
He added, “Ladies and gentlemen of the ECG and engineers fraternity, I hate to tell you but that’s your lot in life, if you do well we don’t quite praise you we keep quiet, but if you like take it for one hour, then you will hear from us.”
The Electricity Company Ghana, ECG currently operates in the southern part of Ghana across six regions, namely Greater Accra, Eastern, Volta, Ashanti, Western and Central Region, providing service to over 3.5 million customers as against 81,430 customers in 1967.
Its operational area covers a population of approximately 20.6 million people as against about 2 million people in their year of commencement.
With a staff of about 600 decades ago, ECG can now boast of providing employment for about 6,400 people directly and over 100,000 people indirectly.
