Ghanaians may soon heave a sigh of relief over the choking electricity bills that have generated public outcry in recent times.
President John Dramani Mahama who disclosed this during his second leg of touching lives and transforming Ghana tour, disclosed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will implement a new billing software which is expected to grant Ghanaians some reliefs.
The new billing system which is different from the one withdrawn following a directive from Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) is expected to begin on July 1.
“I have given them the opportunity to go ahead to implement the solutions they’ve come up with. “Because the electricity billing is done in monthly cycles, they have to start on the first of a month with the billing cycle. So I have asked Ghanaians to exercise patience, from first July they’d start the new billing cycle and I’m sure that a lot of us will see some relief in the electricity bills.”
President Mahama further said “I’ve explained that the bills went so high because the waters in our hydro dams are low and hydro is the cheapest source of power. Now all the power we are produce is either with gas or with crude oil and these are more expensive that hydro. “But we are praying that this year the rains would be good so that the dams would recover. As we put in cheaper hydro power we will adjust the tariff to reflect the cheaper power we are getting. “So I would ask Ghanaians to exercise patience, government is sensitive to what is going on and we’d do our best to give them some relief” the president added.