We back the government's promise to lower electricity prices.

 We back the government's promise to lower electricity prices. The Minister of Energy, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, has hinted that the government will lower electricity prices in 2018, as promised by the NPP government before the 2016 election. The minister stated at a news conference on Wednesday that the decision would be included in the 2018 Budget, which will be read in November. Indeed, even before the pastor's declaration of the levy decrease, the Ghana Managers Affiliation (GEA) had flagged that it would push for a significant decrease in the power taxes in the 2018 Financial plan.

The affiliation has shown that the expense of capacity to organizations in Ghana is one of the greatest, contrasted with other West African nations. As per the second quarter business gauge report of the Relationship of Ghana Ventures (AGI), organizations are miserable about the significant expense of power, which, they say, is a test to organizations, disregarding the general solidness of power supply. The AGI maintains that its members face a significant obstacle due to the 19 cents per kilowatt-hour cost of industrial power.

The Daily Graphic agrees with the call to review electricity tariffs because cheap power will boost economic growth because manufacturing is a crucial industry subsector. We believe that lowering the price of power for the industry is necessary for the government to chart a competitive path for the industry. There is no way for businesses to grow or compete effectively if they continue to face high operational costs as a result of high electricity rates. Therefore, in order to guarantee that the reductions in electricity tariffs are actually implemented, we urge the government to accelerate any reforms it is pursuing in the energy sector. The country's current electricity demand is approximately 2,225 MW. This is expected to reach 7,000MW by 2030, with annual growth of 10%.

We know that requirements for fuel wellsprings of force age — raw petroleum, gas — and water for hydropower age have required the requirement for investigating savvy, dependable, clean energy and power sources. To accomplish a legitimate evaluating blend for the energy area, we propose that the public authority focus closer on the development of the dissemination framework with a full expense activity plan with private area investment under a Confidential Public Organization (PPP) plot.

Additionally, the ministry ought to have a legally binding policy mandate in place for the implementation of energy audits and remote monitoring systems-based energy efficiency programs, particularly at MDAs. As a result, The Daily Graphic calls for a comprehensive review of the regulatory framework in order to guarantee price guarantees and prevent utilities from abusing their market power through collusive and arbitrary pricing, both of which will ultimately lead to improved consumer welfare.

The government and ECG workers need to keep talking.

The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) expressed reservations on Tuesday regarding the government's refusal to negotiate severance packages with Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) employees in the event that the concessionaire of the company declares some of them redundant. As indicated by the association, albeit the interaction towards the execution of the subsequent Thousand Years Challenge Enterprise's (Mcc's) reduced was going on, the Service of Energy had consistently turned hard of hearing ears to the laborers' interest for a conversation of the severance bundle or meet them for exchange.

It explained that it was not against the agreement, but it was against the option of a concession as a model for turning the company's fortunes around. At a press conference the following day, Mr. Boagye Agyarko, the Energy Minister, denied the claims made by the workers and stated that their employment with the concessionaire was guaranteed for twenty years under the renegotiated Ghana Power Compact Two. He added that since there would be no layoffs, the issue of the severance package did not arise as a result of that arrangement.

The Daily Graphic has been following the contentious issues thus far and believes that dialogue and engagement are the way forward. Even though the government insists that the renegotiated compact will keep the ECG's current employees employed for the next 20 years, it is still necessary for the government to involve the workers in the process in order to maintain trust and transparency. The state needs the support of its citizens, this time the employees of the state power distributor, in sensitive projects and programs like the ECG concessionaire model, if not for nothing else. When one party suspects the other in a matter as important as bread and butter, mistrust is a common enemy. As a result, it should not be allowed to surface.

For this situation, while the public authority accepts the $498 million speculation anticipated from the US under the power minimized will assist with patching up the energy area — age, transmission, and dispersion — the specialist is, as is entirely sensible, worried about the supportability of his day to day bread. The Energy Compact, which is part of the Partnership for Growth (PfG) program, aims to engage with governments, the private sector, and civil society to accelerate and sustain broad-based economic growth.

The Daily Graphic, on the other hand, is of the opinion that employees at ECG should not act in a manner analogous to the proverbial "child who cried wolf when there was none but found himself lacking when, on one occasion, a wolf appeared but everyone had already given up on him by that time." We urge workers to assist the government and the ministry in advancing the power compact and bringing the nation out of "darkness" as quickly as possible if there are no real issues to be addressed.