Ghana: Three Months Free Electricity To Cost Gov’t GHC1 Billion

The Government of Ghana is to spend GH¢1 billion to cover free electricity to lifeline and commercial consumers for three months, energynewsafrica.com can report.

The President of the West African nation, H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, last week, announced that the government will fully bear the cost of electricity for lifeline consumers and also pay for 50 percent for commercial consumers for the months of March, May and June.

The move, according to the President, was part of measures introduced to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus on Ghanaians.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Information Ministry, Ghana’s Energy Minister, John-Peter Amewu said customers of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta River Authority (VRA) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) will be positively affected by the relief.

He explained that lifeline customer in Ghana is one who uses one television set, two bulbs, a table top refrigerator and a fan for a limited number of hours.

So any consumer with these appliances and uses them on daily basis is considered as a lifeline customer.

ECG’s customer population of one million (calculated in terms of metres) means that “at the current tariff level, the government is absorbing almost an amount of ₵8.5 million per month. For non-lifeline customers of which 2,780,886 are residential and 1,608 are special low tariff customers, a 50 percent discount on their electricity bill will translate to ₵235. 4 million per month.

“The total relief for ECG customers per month based on the estimated revenue is, therefore, ₵244 million, translating into ₵732 million for the three months,” Mr Amewu detailed.

The relief for all NEDCo customers, on the other hand, translates to about ₵47 million per month, totalling ₵141 million for the three-month period.

“This comprises a relief of about ₵10.9 million per month or ₵32.9 million for three months for a population of 5,069 life customers.”

For NEDCo’s non-life customers, who make 60.67 percent of its population, the government will be paying ₵36 million per month or ₵108 million for the three months.

The government is providing a total relief of ₵55.5 million per month for customers of the VRA. This figure translates to ₵166.4 million for three months.

“The VRA relief comprises 12 mining customers at ₵42.4 million per month or a total of ₵127.2 million for three months and a ₵4.8 million monthly relief totaling ₵14.4 million for the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO),” Mr Amewu said.

He added that the bill for other manufacturing customers like Aluworks, Diamond Cement, Savanna Cement, Enclave Power Limited stands at ₵7.9 million per month, totalling ₵23.7 million for the three-month period.

“Overall, the government is providing a cumulative relief of an amount equivalent of one billion cedis, approximately covering a customer population of about 4.8 million metres across Ghana for the three month period,” he said.

Source: www.energynewsafrica.com