Director of Communications for the Bawumia Campaign, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has argued that recent increases in utility tariffs are undermining the economic gains recorded under Ghana’s ongoing macroeconomic recovery.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s weekend analysis programme The Big Issue on Saturday, January 24, Miracles maintained that living conditions have not improved for the average Ghanaian under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
He said rising utility costs are inseparable from the broader cost-of-living pressures confronting households and businesses, noting that fuel prices, inflation, exchange rate movements and utility tariffs are closely interconnected.
According to him, the recent hike in utility tariffs has effectively cancelled out the benefits of recent macroeconomic improvements for many consumers.
He illustrated this with an example of a retail trader, explaining that while importers may lower prices due to improved economic conditions, higher electricity costs prevent retailers from passing on those savings to consumers.
“It is integrated. You cannot have the fuel conversation and its impact on the cost of living in isolation. The fuel, the inflation, dollar and then utilities would work together. The fact of the matter is that, that 28% increase in utility has basically made nonsense of the macroeconomic improvement that we are seeing in the lives of the people.
“The retailer buys the box of poultry at a reduced price from the importer but when he comes to his shop where he sells to you and I, he is at a loss because his previous GH₵10,000 electricity is now GH₵12,000. So that gain he made from the reduced price from the importer cannot be transferred to the consumer,” he said.
