President Nana Akufo-Addo has revealed that electricity tariffs will soon be reviewed downwards, details of which will be announced in the 2018 budget presentation on Wednesday, November 15.
The President made the revelation at the at the 6th Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and Quality Awards dinner on Saturday.
“I’m glad that businesses are no longer burdened by the erratic power supply that wrecked our nation in recent years. Dumsor, thank God, appears now to be the thing of an unlamented past. Another of the stars of the government, the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, is to be commended for the sterling work he’s been doing so far on this matter.
“Furthermore, the government is moving to set in motion the process for the review of electricity tariffs and in the budget to be read by the brilliant Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday, I’m sure we will hear some good news in this regard,” he said.
A downward review of power tariff will be a fulfilment of yet another 2016 electioneering campaign promise of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) which had criticised the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of billing Ghanaians too much for electricity.
The plan to reduce power tariffs is being made possible by moves by the government to use gas to power thermal plants.
The Business Barometer (BB) report released by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in February this year cited the high cost of electricity as a major challenge to the growth of businesses in the fourth quarter of 2016, followed by a high number of taxes and delayed in payments of projects.
The AGI then called on the government to as a matter of urgency reduce or scrap some taxes and work towards reducing power tariffs.
The issue of high electricity tariff is still the number one challenge for businesses and it cuts across almost all the regions, the AGI had said.
Electricity tariffs to go down
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