The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has urged the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to ensure that electricity consumers are not made to bear the cost of inefficiencies and poor management within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) through tariff increases.
Director of Policy Engagement and Partnerships at CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Asante, argued that while utility tariffs may be adjusted to reflect genuine economic factors such as inflation and exchange rate movements, consumers should not be charged for losses arising from waste, corruption, and operational failures.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, June 27, 2026, Dr. Asante questioned whether the regulator was doing enough to compel ECG to improve its operational performance before approving tariff hikes.
His remarks follow the PURC’s latest quarterly tariff review, which increased electricity tariffs by 3.49 percent and water tariffs by 0.85 percent.
According to Dr. Asante, allowing ECG to recover costs resulting from inefficiencies through higher tariffs unfairly transfers the burden of poor management to consumers.
“If you cannot, as part of ECG, correct these things, there is no way we can allow you to charge. It means that you are cheating us. The cost escalation is self-inflicted, and then you come and put the cost on the customer,” he stated.
He maintained that the Commission should carefully distinguish between unavoidable cost pressures and losses that stem from governance and operational shortcomings within utility companies.
Dr. Asante stressed that technical losses, waste, corruption and management failures should be addressed through institutional reforms rather than being incorporated into electricity pricing.
He further called for greater transparency in the tariff-setting process, saying consumers deserve a clear explanation of how tariff adjustments are determined and assurances that avoidable costs are not being passed on to them.
According to him, strengthening accountability within ECG is essential to improving efficiency and protecting consumers from unjustified increases in utility bills.
