Utility Tariff Hikes: Blame NPP for proposed tariff increments

The Minister of State in Charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has argued that the proposed tariff increments by utility service providers in Ghana should be blamed on the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

According to him, the erstwhile NPP administration entered into an agreement with the World Bank for a $300 million disbursement in 2024. As part of the conditionalities for accessing the funds, the then-NPP government agreed to a quarterly tariff adjustment followed by a major adjustment in September 2025.

Describing comments from the NPP on the proposed tariff hikes as hypocritical, Kwakye Ofosu highlighted that apart from the agreement with the World Bank, the current NDC government inherited an energy sector bridled saddled with debts in excess of GHC80 billion owed to various external entities and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

During an appearance on Channel 1 TV’s Face To Face on Tuesday, September 16, Felix Kwakye Ofosu shared that as at the time the current NDC administration assumed office, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) alone was saddled with a GHC63 billion debt owed to IPPs, a situation he said almost plunged the nation into a power crisis.

“Initially what we did was to ensure that we secured adequate supplies of fuel to power our thermal plants because we were aware that the West African Gas Pipeline was going to shut down. The previous government didn’t make any effort to leave any substantial amount of fuel to fire thermal plants, so we did that,” he explained.

He further explained that the state was constantly indebted to entities along the energy sector value chain as payments to these entities were always defaulted.

“So, government took a decision that the cash waterfall mechanism must be implemented properly, so now when ECG collects money [an average of GHC1.5 billion per month], that money is shared in a manner that enables everybody in the value chain to obtain something to finance their operations, and that is what has led to the stability,” he added.

Linking the stability of utility services to the proposed tariff increments, Kwakye Ofosu assured that the current administration is bound by the previous government’s agreement with the World Bank, the steep increments proposed will be combed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to strike a reasonable percentage of adjustment.

“They will go through it with a fine comb and ensure that customers are not worst off, so you may have seen some figure circulating but I am confident that those figures will not reflect,” he assured.