The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has alleged that the management of the Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) is handing over its payment system to a private company called Hubtel.
According to him, Hubtel is the same company that the previous ECG Managing Director, Kwame Agyeman–Budu, wanted to take charge of the company’s payment system at a commission of 1.5 percent which led to some commotion.
Speaking in a Good Morning Ghana panel discussion monitored by GhanaWeb, on Tuesday, October 4, Jinapor added that now the current management is trying to privatize the payment system at a 4 percent commission rate.
“There is an attempt to hand over the ECG app, which was developed locally by ECG staff to a company called Hubtel. Today as we speak, there are Hubtel officials at ECG trying to hook their system on the app.
“I’m even told that Hubtel is proposing to charge 4 percent commission. So, there is a lot of internal upheaval among some ECG staff.
“Don’t forget that during Budu’s time he wanted to embark on the same thing and charge 1.5 (percent commission). The ECG staff held press conferences publicly and agitated against the 1.5 percent commission.
“They (the ECG staff) believe that they have already developed the app and that it should not cost that much to bring on board a third party,” he said.
The ranking member, who is also the Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, added that the National Security also entered the discussion and it is demanding some information about the transaction and some details on the payment system.