The National Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has accused the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians following recent utility tariff adjustments.
According to him, the NDC has failed to provide relief to citizens despite promising to reduce the cost of living, and rather continues to shift blame onto the previous NPP administration.
“The NDC must take responsibility for its insensitivity and for deceiving Ghanaians into thinking it would bring down the cost of living. Instead, conditions have worsened for Ghanaians since coming into office,” Mr. Ahiagbah stated in a social media post on Monday, April 14.
His comments come in response to the latest tariff increases announced by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), which raised electricity tariffs by 14.75% and water tariffs by 4.02%.
Mr. Ahiagbah argued that the NDC has a record of significantly increasing tariffs, citing what he called a cumulative hike of 294.5% in electricity tariffs between 2009 and 2016 under the previous NDC government.
“I hear the NDC blames the New Patriotic Party for the 14.75% and 4.02% hikes in electricity and water tariffs, respectively. That cannot be true if you consider that from 2009 to 2016, the NDC increased electricity tariffs cumulatively by 294.5%,” he wrote.
He further questioned, “Is the NDC saying the 294.6% increase in electricity tariffs from 2009–2016 is blamable on the NPP?”
Meanwhile, the PURC, in its announcement, explained that the latest adjustments were driven by four factors — exchange rate volatility, inflation, the electricity generation mix, and the cost of fuel, mainly natural gas.
