The Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, will meet with the management of the Northern Electricity Development Company (NEDCo), today, Thursday, February 9, 2023, to discuss an allegation of non-performance made against the Managing Director, Osmani Aludiba Ayuba, by the staff.
The Board was petitioned by the company’s staff, who cited instances of the Managing Director’s incompetence.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Osmani Aludiba Ayuba, revealed that the sector minister is scheduled to meet with the leadership today.
“The staff have brought up an internal issue. The Minister of Energy has requested today’s meeting as the Board works to resolve the issue.
In a petition that they submitted to the company’s board of directors, the staff supported their demand by citing, among other things, NEDCo’s “worse financial performance, lack of a clear strategy for the company, expensive sole source procurement of point-of-sale devices, and worsening distribution losses.”
They also said that the company has regressed since Mr. Ayuba took over as managing director about three years ago.
“The net financial loss of NEDCo instead of improving has deteriorated from GH¢315.398 million in 2018 to GH¢392.406 million as of September 2022. The estimated net loss for 2022 is over GH¢400 million. This means NEDCo’s performance deteriorated by at least 24% over the period,” the petition said.
However, the Managing Director denies the accusations of incompetence that have been made against him.
According to Mr. Ayuba, decisions were made with the company’s best interests in mind. He urged the staff to exercise restraint and let the board address all concerns.
Mr. Ayuba declared, “We are in charge, and we are confident that we have made the best decisions to the best of our abilities with the support of the board if anything untoward is happening.
He added that “they [staff] are talking about the financial performance, Yes, we would like to make profits but in operational areas, we have serious challenges that do not allow us to really make the profits that we want to do.”
On Wednesday, February 8, the NEDCo staff partially withdrew their services from all of their operational areas.
The reason for the strike is that the Board of Directors did not comply with their demand to fire the Managing Director.
Except for emergency situations and power vending, all field services are on hold.
