225% Tariff Increment to Sustain $408m Investment, Offset Cedi Depreciation – ECG Says
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has requested approval from the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for a new electricity tariff, arguing that the increase is necessary to sustain more than US$408 million invested in infrastructure and customer service improvements over the past three years.
ECG is proposing a 225% upward adjustment in its Distribution Service Charge (DSC1) from GHp19.0384 to GHp61.8028 per kilowatt-hour between 2025 and 2029. The company attributes the request to the sharp depreciation of the Ghana cedi, which has lost about 74 percent of its value since 2022, effectively cutting ECG’s revenue in dollar terms by nearly half.
“Back in 2022, what we charged was equal to 2.27 US cents per kilowatt-hour. Today, it is worth only 1.23 cents. This makes it difficult for ECG to maintain and expand the network without upward tariff adjustments,” said Dr. Charles Nii Ayiku, General Manager for External Communications at ECG.
He clarified that while the proposed DSC1 adjustment is significant, the corresponding impact on consumer electricity bills—measured by the Average End User Tariff (AEUT)—will be an increase of about 24 percent.
According to Dr. Ayiku, the new tariff will enable ECG to recover costs tied to recent investments such as the construction of new substations in Bibiani, Obuasi, Koforidua, and Afari; the deployment of more than one million smart meters; and upgrades to digital systems, including the ECG Power App for bill payment, credit purchase, and complaints.
Customers, he assured, would benefit through improved reliability and service delivery. By 2029, ECG projects a 41 percent reduction in average outage hours and a decrease in system losses from 27 percent to 22 percent.
“We are determined to build a stronger ECG that can deliver reliable service without depending on government bailouts. The proposed tariff is essential to achieving that goal,” Dr. Ayiku stated.
The utility company emphasised that, under PURC’s regulatory oversight, customer funds would be reinvested transparently into projects aimed at strengthening electricity supply for households and businesses nationwide.
