The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has criticized the defunct Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal wasn’t bad, it’s just that some greedy people ruined it for everyone else.

He was speaking on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at the Government Accountability Series in Accra.

According to him, the idea of bringing in the private sector to help with power distribution made sense, but the way it was handled was full of selfish interests and political interference.

“We’re not going back to the PDS way of doing things. The idea itself wasn’t bad, but a few greedy individuals hijacked the whole thing just to sell the shares among themselves,” he said.

He explained that even though the PDS model had issues, it showed some signs of working in the beginning.

“If they had done what we’re doing now, like making sure we get value for money, following a competitive process, and keeping politics out, things would’ve been better. Even with all its flaws, ECG revenue was starting to go up under PDS. So imagine what could happen if we did it properly,” he added.

Jinapor made it clear that this time around, they won’t repeat the same mistakes with the new private sector partnership for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

“I’ve made it clear, we’re not touching any shares. We’re keeping everything transparent and accountable,” he assured.

A bit of background on the PDS saga:

Power Distribution Services Ghana Ltd (PDS)came into the picture under the government of former President Nana Akufo-Addo. The plan was to let PDS manage ECG for 25 years.

The deal was signed in March 2019 and was supposed to bring in a vital $190 million from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to support Ghana’s power sector. But by July 2019, the whole thing was suspended after fraud allegations popped up.

Turns out PDS had submitted fake insurance guarantees to back the takeover. These were supposed to be legit bank guarantees or demand guarantees from a top-rated insurer. Instead, they brought documents from a Qatari company, Al Koot Insurance and Reinsurance — which later turned out to be full of forged signatures and had no real financial backing.

Because of that, the government cancelled the deal, and Ghana lost out on the much-needed MCC funding — a big setback for energy reforms.