The GIMPA Centre for Excellence in Public Utility Regulation (CEPUR) has held a one-day stakeholder engagement on Ghana’s lifeline electricity tariff to assess its policy implications going forward.
The engagement, held on January 29, 2026, at the McDan Moot Court Complex on the campus of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), brought together energy experts, policymakers, academics, selected journalists, and members of the general public to discuss the policy and its implications for tariff pricing in the short to medium term.
Speaking to Univers News on the sidelines of the event, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre, Professor Adom, indicated that the lifeline tariff policy (0–30 kWh) is likely to offer limited long-term benefits to users of prepaid meters. He explained that this category of consumers often reduces the use of certain electrical appliances in order to conserve energy for more essential household activities.
“The lifeline policy is a good relief measure instituted by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the government. However, it can be counterproductive in the long term, as it may sideline other genuinely low-income households that require the relief. Differences in meter deployment—whether prepaid or postpaid—reduce the efficiency of targeting the truly low-income households the policy was designed to support. Data from CEPUR’s field studies show that a systematic review of the parameters of the lifeline policy will make it more realistic and better aligned with its target groups,” he said.
Energy consultant and former Board Member of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Nii Darko Asante, also noted that for the lifeline tariff to effectively benefit the urban poor, the regulator must compel the power distributor, ECG, to prioritise the installation of separate meters for households living in compound houses to accurately measure electricity consumption.
“From my experience at the PURC, data suggests that the Electricity Company of Ghana is often slow in providing separate meters to multiple households living within the same compound, as this reduces the receivables the company expects to collect at the end of the month. However, as a regulator tasked with protecting the interests of both service providers and end users, it is time to enforce existing standards and push ECG’s management to provide separate meters to such households to truly determine individual power consumption,” he stated.
The meeting was also used to disseminate key findings from studies conducted by Fellows of the Centre to guide a systematic review of policies within Ghana’s power distribution system.
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Story by Sika Togoh | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Gabriel Tecco Mensah
