Ghana Water revenue mobilisation below 50% of potential – MD

The Managing Director of Ghana Water Limited (GWL), Adam Mutawakilu, says the company is currently mobilising less than 50 per cent of the revenue it could potentially generate.

He said management is working to improve revenue collection to make the company financially sustainable and reduce its dependence on government funding.

Appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, October 13, Mr Mutawakilu identified revenue mobilisation as a key priority, alongside efforts to improve its balance sheet and manage foreign exchange losses arising from loan repayments.

“The first one is revenue. I believe that what we are raising now is less than 50% of what we should have raised, and we are working round the clock to improve our revenue to be able to financially sustain us,” he said.

He disclosed that the company was replacing commercial meters as part of efforts to strengthen its revenue collection system.

However, he said the exercise had exposed significant gaps in the company’s database.

“For every hundred commercial meters that we are on estimates, we discover 62 that are not in our database,” he said.

Mr Mutawakilu described the finding as worrying, suggesting that the company needed to improve its records and revenue collection processes to maximise its earnings.

He expressed optimism that the ongoing measures would enable Ghana Water to become financially self-sustaining by 2027.

“We believe that next year we should be able to be financially self-sustaining, to have a balance sheet that will not depend on government to finance our projects,” he said.

The GWL Managing Director, however, stressed that government support would be necessary to address legacy loans on the company’s balance sheet.

He called for the conversion of legacy loans that have largely been repaid into equity, saying the move would improve the company’s financial position, strengthen its capacity to attract investment and help manage foreign exchange losses.