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Ghana raises electricity tariffs by 18.36% for Q2 2023

Published

11 months ago

May 17, 2023

In its latest move to address its current financial crisis, Ghana has raised electricity tariffs by 18.36% for the second quarter of the year.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) revealed on Wednesday that the latest raise added to an almost 30% increase in the first quarter.

The PURC says the increase was a result of the net effect of further currency depreciation, inflation and an increase in the cost of gas.

“Utility companies are under-covering and require an upward adjustment of their rates in order to keep the lights on”, it added, noting that the potential for outages was high.

Ghana is battling with a high inflation rate and financial shortage which have made it default in its foreign debt. It is currently pushing for debt restructuring from its creditors, notably the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and China. Its GDP growth is estimated to have slowed to 3.2% in 2022, down from 5.4% in 2021.

Statista reports that as of 2021, the average end-user tariff for electricity customers in Ghana stood at 75 Ghanaian pesewas (around 0.09 US dollar) per kilowatt hour.

European countries, Denmark and Germany have the highest household electricity prices worldwide, as of June 2022. Danish households were charged around 0.53 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour, while in Germany the price stood at 0.52 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour.

Related Topics:electricity Featured Ghana

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Nigeria’s inflation hits 28-year high of 33.20%

Published

17 hours ago

April 15, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The recent gains of Nigeria’s Naira as the best-performing currency worldwide in the last month have had little or no impact on the consumer price index in the West African country as its inflation rate reached a 28-year high of 33.20%.

According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s inflation has continued its 15-month-a-row surge driven by soaring food and energy costs despite the central bank’s rate hikes aimed at halting its ascent.

This was 10.37% more than the 21.9% inflation rate seen in March 2023. Year-over-year, rural inflation was 31.45% in March 2024. Rural inflation fell from 2.9% in February 2024 to 2.87 % in March 2024, which was a 0.20 percentage point drop from February 2024.

It went up by 5.71% points from March 2023 to March 2024, when it was 19.79%. The average rural inflation rate for the twelve months finishing in March 2024 was 25.50%.

Food prices went up by 40.1% a year in March 2024, which was 15.56 percentage points more than the rate of 24.45% a year earlier. The statistics office said food and non-alcoholic beverages were the biggest contributors to the pickup in inflation. Food inflation rose to 40.01% year-on-year, from 37.92% a month earlier.

Since President Bola Tinubu ended an expensive gasoline subsidy and devalued the naira twice in his first year in office, price pressures have grown. To get the economy off of subsidies that have hurt the government’s finances, the government recently raised energy rates for people who use the most electricity.

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Diesel gulping over 80% of Nigerian manufacturers’ profit, association claims

Published

23 hours ago

April 15, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following recent energy failure which has seen Nigeria suffer its worst blackout in decades, manufacturers in the country have lamented the high cost of diesel which is largely used as an alternate energy source for operations.

The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, while addressing newsmen on Sunday on the
the plight of manufacturers against the backdrop of rising prices of their products stressed that automotive gas oil (AGO) gulped over 80℅ of manufacturers’ profit.

Ajayi-Kadir stated: “We have at different fora informed government and relevant agencies of what to do to bring down these inimical worsening high operating costs in the country. Nigerians should not blame local manufacturers for increasing the cost of goods, because they are being confronted with debilitating conditions.

“Do you know that diesel is taking 80 per cent profit of surviving manufacturing firms in Nigeria currently at the rate of about N1,700?

“Which manufacturer can cope with that astronomical price for energy to produce and you won’t expect him to increase his products in the country?

“Also, look at the new Customs exchange rate, new interest rate, scarcity of foreign exchange (FX), NAFDAC ban and others. How do you want to cope in production and make a profit?”

Although there was relief two weeks ago as privately run Dangote Refinery began diesel production which crashed the price of diesel by 29.4% production cost however remain daunting for manufacturers.