The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG), together with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and the Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association, has condemned moves by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to increase electricity tariffs next year.
In a strongly worded statement, the associations said “the skyrocketing cost of electricity in Ghana is not just unsustainable, but it is anti-business, anti-growth, and fundamentally flawed.” They warned that “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.”
FABAG said that 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.” It noted that many businesses, especially SMEs and manufacturers, are being forced to “scale down operations, lay off workers, or pass exorbitant costs to already overburdened consumers.”
According to the statement, “Ghana’s electricity pricing system punishes honest businesses and users in general and rewards inefficiency.” It said “honest ordinary Ghanaians are essentially paying for the sector’s losses, mismanagement, and corruption,” forcing some businesses to “bypass the system entirely.”
“When electricity becomes unaffordable, it becomes a target for illegal access,” FABAG cautioned. “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.”
The group said 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.” FABAG described the system as “a clear betrayal of government’s own promise to make Ghana an industrial hub.”
“It’s imperative for the PURC to understand that pouring water into a leaking bucket does not simply make sense if the purpose is to conserve scarce water,” the statement added. “No amount of higher tariffs can sustainably compensate for the inefficiency, mismanagement, poor revenue collection, bad debts, poor workers attitude and corruption in our Utilities.”
FABAG and its partners demanded “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,” and “a crackdown on internal waste and corruption in the power sector.”
“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,” the statement declared.
“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.”
