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The Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia has called on Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to effectively adopt revenue mobilization strategy to help address the challenges in the energy sector.

According to him, failing to fix the major challenge of Electricity Company of Ghana as in the area of collection of electricity bills can affect the purpose of clearing the energy sector debts.

The Vice President revealed that government is currently in discussion on issuing energy sector bond to offset the legacy debts of the energy sector in order to create space for increment in investment in the banking sector.

But Dr. Bawumia feared the purpose for issuing the bond will be baseless if the fundamental challenges in the sector are not addressed; thus, it is important to address the issue of collection of electricity bills by ECG for the development of the energy sector.

“The energy sector has been a burden on many banks and this is a challenge we have to address seriously in dealing with the energy sector issues. There is discussion about issuing energy sector bond but ultimately even when the bond is issued and if we don’t address the fundamentals of collection of electricity bills by ECG, we will end up going back to the same point,” he reiterated.

Dr. Bawumia again urged ECG to seriously consider this issue of collection of electricity bills and the adoption of wholesale for most part of the pre-paid meters across the country as they maybe the way to go to ensure and enforce ECG to collect the bills to keep the financial system stable.

“So let’s think about it; we want a stronger financial sector and therefore we want to make sure the banks have sufficient capital base. Many banks in this country cannot even finance single cargo of oil; they don’t have the capital to do that and so we have to make sure that the banks have stronger financial base,” he asserted.

The Vice President made these remarks at the launch of Direct Savings and Loan which used to be Express Capital Microfinance Ltd.

He however noted that the bank and non-bank financial institutions play a critical role in the development of the economy; therefore government will give them the necessary support needed to enable the sector to assist the economy and socio-economic development.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia revealed that Savings and Loans companies account for 45 percent of total credit of 3.97 billion of the non-banked financial sector institutions; thus, the sector undoubtedly contributes immensely to the transformation of a huge portion of the informal sector towards Ghana’s ultimate output [GDP].

“The establishment of this financial institution today will deepen the country’s financial sector which is in line with government’s commitment to developing a robust financial services sector needed for economic growth. With a noble vision, to support the growth of other indigenous small and medium size companies, it is the hope of government that Direct Savings and Loans will contribute towards the economic and development programme of Ghana,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer for Direct Savings and Loans, Ben Adu Owusu said the firm recognizes the role that private sector investment and innovation play in Ghana’s economic development and assured it will remain steadfast in its commitment to contribute to the national interest.

He said the upgrading to Savings and Loans will give them more capacity to contribute immensely in the financial sector and serve their customers better; stressing that as a savings and loans company, it had more services to render to its customers.

“Ultimately, our core business does not change; of course by upgrading to savings and loans, it gives us more capacity to be able to serve our customers better,” he said.

“We are excited for them because of our new image as Direct Savings and Loans. We are going to try and do more for our customers. Over the years, most of our customers have grown and so their needs and capacity has also grown and so by upgrading now, it puts us in a position to be able to provide the type of service they need,” he added.