Manila Electric Co., the biggest electricity retailer, plans to start managing and operating the electricity distribution business of Electricity Company of Ghana in West Africa the in the first quarter of 2019.
“We are working with Millennium Development Authority, and electricity company of Ghana for proper transfer by first quarter. Our people are there,” Meralco president Oscar Reyes said Friday.
He said the Meralco was finalizing the agreements that will enable the utility to take a 30-percent in the joint venture that will operate the distribution business of EGC.
“There are several agreements… For crafting, finalization and signing. We are required to have 30 percent but we can bring that down to 19 percent in the JV,” Reyes said.
Meralco was earlier chosen as the preferred bidder to manage, operate and invest in the ECG privatization process.
The Millennium Development Authority of Ghana said the Meralco consortium had the highest combined technical and financial score and was designated as the preferred bidder.
Meralco senior vice president and head corporate marketing Al Panlilio said earlier the Ghana bid included equity ownership and management of the concession company that would take over ECG, which supplies 80 percent of the population of Ghana through three million accounts.
Meralco is the country’s biggest power distributor with over six million customers in its franchise area. It already has a stake in a distribution utility in Nigeria, also in West Africa.
Meralco and partner Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Ltd. took over the operations of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company Plc. and Yola Electricity Distribution Co. Plc. in November 2013.
MiDA received two proposals from Meralco and BXC Ghana to operate the electrical distribution business of ECG.
Millennium Challenge Corp. is supporting the Ghana’s efforts to improve the management and efficiency of the nation’s largest state-owned electricity distribution utility by bringing in a private sector operator to improve overall service quality.
