John Abdulai Jinapor, the energy minister has detailed that the illegal sale of ECG containers is largely driven by foreign nationals.
The sector minister noted that workers of the foreign-owned aluminium smelting factories who were caught melting the stolen ECG cables were Chinese, Indian, and Benin business workers.
Speaking on TV3’s The Key Point on March 29, John Jinapor detailed, “Almost all the workers were Beninois. I have a feeling they didn’t want Ghanaians to be part of the factory. Maybe they would leak information or something”.
“There were some Indians too in one of the warehouses. And Ghanaians. And then we went to some of the other warehouses. Almost all the workers were Beninese. And one of the Chinese factories we went to, almost all the workers were from Benin. And that was very striking,” John Jinapor stated.
“Two companies, the foreign nationals, who are the owners, have been arrested, and so the security agencies are pursuing them,” he disclosed.
The minority leader Afenyo Markin who served as the board chairman of the ECG under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government on the floor of parliament accused some staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) of planning and plotting with Customs Officers at the port to sell over 1,300 missing containers of cables at the Tema Port.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Friday, March 28, 2025, Afenyo-Markin questioned how the containers simply vanished into thin air despite bureaucratic processes at the port.
“How come containers at the port that have arrived, the bureaucracy at our ports, they said the containers are missing? Mr. Speaker, it is true that when these containers come, there’s some connivance with some customs officials. And they sell these containers of cables that ECG needs after the supplier has been paid.”
He further alleged that the cables are resold to ECG, urging lawmakers to focus on addressing the issue rather than politicizing it.
“They sell the containers, and people resell to ECG. Are we pretending we don’t know? Instead of us paying attention to it and killing the rot, then we come here and then NPP, NDC, maybe it happened under NPP, it happened under NDC. No.”
Afenyo-Markin assured the Energy Minister of the Minority’s support in tackling the issue.
“Hon. Energy Minister [John Jinapor], I know what you can do if we can give you support to do it. You must adopt a non-partisan posture and tackle the rot. But if we all want to approach it NPP, NDC, then Mr. Speaker, it will remain.”
Meanwhile, John Jinapor has also halved the annual operational budget allocation of the Electricity Company of Ghana.
John Jinapor’s decision comes on the back of a report that revealed that over 1,300 containers belonging to the ECG had mysteriously vanished from the Tema Port.
The ECG’s budget will now be reduced from a staggering GH₵500 million to GH₵250 million following reports of the missing containers.
