By Jones Anlimah
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has assured the public that decisions on the proposed tariff adjustments for the 2025–2029 Multi-Year Tariff Review Period will be fair, transparent, and balanced between consumer affordability and the financial health of utility companies.
At a well-attended public hearing on utility tariff proposals for the 2025–2029 period, held in Ho, Nana Yaa Jantuah, a Board Member and Chairperson of the Stakeholder Committee of PURC, explained that the process considers both technical and social factors.
“The public has interrogated the utilities and told them what is on their mind. This is just a proposal. At the end of the day, PURC will consider the technical variables such as crude oil prices, the generation mix, exchange rates, and inflation together with the social variable, which is your input as consumers,” she explained.
She emphasized that the Commission’s duty was to ensure the financial viability of service providers while protecting consumers from unfair pricing. “There is no way we are going to give a tariff without attaching the requisite KPIs. If ECG or NEDCo fail to provide reliable power and good quality service, sanctions will be applied,” she stressed.
Addressing specific concerns raised at the hearing, Madam Jantuah pointed out that issues such as bushfires destroying ECG poles and sand winning near water sources were not just environmental threats but economic ones.
“These human activities disrupt utility service provision and increase costs that eventually come back to the consumer. We need a concerted national effort to stop them,” she urged, adding that utilities need to partner with the media to intensify public education.
Meanwhile, officials from ECG, Ghana Water, GRIDCo, and the Volta River Authority defended their proposals for upward tariff adjustments, citing rising operational costs. ECG is proposing a 225 percent tariff adjustment, Ghana Water Limited 280 percent, GRIDCo 77 percent and VRA 59 percent.
Members of the public, however, argued that any increase in tariffs must be matched with salary adjustments to cushion households.
The Commission will consider all submissions from other regional hearings before announcing its final decision.
