Story By: Ben Laryea
The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) in partnership with its sister Organizations: Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and the Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association is outraged by the PURC’s persistent move through its continued nationwide Stakeholders engagement all aimed at increasing electricity tariffs next year. Once again, we wish to state that the skyrocketing cost of electricity in Ghana is not just unsustainable, but it is anti-business, anti-growth, and fundamentally flawed. Ghanaian enterprises and citizens are being strangled by tariffs daily that defy economic logic, crush competitiveness, and create fertile ground for illegal connections and power theft.
In a country striving to attract investment and stimulate industrial development, the current electricity pricing regime amounts to a direct attack on manufacturing and productivity. Businesses, especially SMEs and manufacturers, are being forced to scale down operations, lay off workers, or pass exorbitant costs to already overburdened consumers. Meanwhile, government officials over the years parrot commitments to economic transformation.
It is very important to call it what it is, “Ghana’s electricity pricing system punishes honest businesses and users in general and rewards inefficiency.” Honest ordinary Ghanaians are essentially paying for the sector’s losses, mismanagement, and corruption. Consequently, businesses are pushed to the brink, and some are driven to bypass the system entirely.
“When electricity becomes unaffordable, it becomes a target for illegal access. We are fast creating a society where honest business owners are punished while defaulters and illegal users thrive.” In simple terms, the system is rewarding defaulters and punishing honest users.
Worse still, the pricing structure disproportionately affects productive sectors such as factories, cold storage, and other energy-intensive industries thereby discouraging local manufacturing and making imports even more attractive. How can Ghana talk about industrialization when the very foundation of industry which is power is used to weaponize against it? Indeed, the current pricing system is a clear betrayal of government’s own promise to make Ghana an industrial hub.
The regressive tariffs over the years don’t just make power theft attractive but they make it rational. As bills become unbearable and enforcement remains erratic, many see illegal connections as the only way to survive. While theft should never be condoned, the current system practically dares citizens and businesses to take matters into their own hands.
It’s imperative for the PURC to understand that pouring water into leaking bucket does not simply make sense if the purpose is to conserve scarce water. What makes sense is to mend the leakage first. o amount of higher tariffs can sustainably compensate for the inefficiency, mismanagement, poor revenue collection, bad debts, poor workers attitude and corruption in our Utilities.
The government and PURC must face the truth: this is not a pricing system, it’s a trap. A trap that kills jobs, discourages investment, and fuels criminality. In fact, the more you try to play by the rules, the more you are made to suffer. The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) and its partners hereby demand immediate reforms:
A full audit of the real cost of power production and distribution.
A simplified, transparent tariff structure that rewards efficiency and productive use.
Urgent relief for businesses, particularly in manufacturing and agribusiness.
Crackdown on internal waste and corruption in the power sector, not just illegal connections.
Implement quantifiable internal or operational cost-cutting measures to save resources for revamping these agencies.
This is a call to action for every entrepreneur, investor, and citizen who believes in Ghana’s future. We cannot develop in darkness, not just the physical kind, but the darkness of bad policy and willful economic sabotage.
Enough is enough! We are tired of lip service and empty promises. Electricity must empower not impoverish. His Excellency, the President must act now! It’s time for PURC to stand up for honest businesses and Ghanaians in general.
