Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has made a strong case for the Akufo-Addo government insisting that since coming into office in 2017, electricity tariff has seen a cumulative decline.
The Vice President explained that the government in 2018 reduced electricity prices for businesses and households by 30% and 17.5% averagely bringing huge relief to consumers.
Despite the upward adjustment realised in 2019, with electricity prices going up by 16.6%, Dr Bawumia argues that Ghanaians are still cushioned by the massive reduction witnessed in 2018.
“In 2018, we [NPP] reduced electricity prices of businesses by 30% and for households by 17.5 %, an average of around 22%.”
“Earlier this year in July, there was an increase in the electricity price of 11% and yesterday of 5.6%. When you take the total cumulative increase on average, as I said, between 2017 and today, you have a cumulative decrease of about 5%.” The Vice President divulged.
His comments go to justify the recent increment announced by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission that effective October 1, consumers will pay 5.94% more for electricity tariffs.
The PURC also declared a 2.22% rise in water tariffs for all customer categories.
Addressing the gathering at the launch of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Jobs Centre at the Bank of Ghana Auditorium at the University of Ghana on Wednesday, Dr Bawumia hit out at the opposition NDC for attempting to score political points with the latest development.
In his view, the NDC has no moral justification to make such pronouncement since, during the tenure of former President John Mahama, electricity tariff went up by 166%.
The Vice President mentioned, “Between 2013 and 2016, just the last four years of the NDC government, the cumulative increase in electricity tariff was 166%”.
“So, the NDC, in their last four years, increased [electricity tariff] by 166%, we have come down since we have been in government by 5% on average” he stated comparing the Mahama administration to the Akufo-Addo government.
