Claim: No increase in electricity tariffs in 2017 and 2018
Source: Gideon Boako (Tano North MP)
Verdict: One true, one mixture
Researched by Gifty Danso
A day after the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced tariff increments, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North, Gideon Boako, shared two Facebook posts about tariff implementations in 2015-2016 and 2017- 2018.
In the first post on December 3, 2025, the MP claimed there were no tariff increments in 2017 and 2018.
The recent increase of 9.86% for electricity and 15.92% for water, effective from January 2026, has sparked concerns among consumer protection groups, labour and trade unions. (See here, here, here, and here.)
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But was there no increase in electricity tariffs in 2017 and 2018? GhanaFact will verify two claims by the NPP legislator in this report.
Claim 1
“Let it be known that in the first year of the NPP administration in 2017, there was NO increase in electricity tariff. In the 2nd year in 2018, it was reduced by 17.5%,” he wrote.
Fact-check
Per details in a gazetted tariffs publication, between 2017 and 2018, the PURC issued five tariff reviews.
In 2017 specifically, the Commission published three tariff reviews, in January, April and July. All three reviews did not result in any increases.
In March 2018, the Commission published a major tariff review, a 17.5% reduction in electricity tariffs for households and different rates for non-household consumers and special traffic load consumers.
In its 2018 annual report, the PURC noted that although it had received submissions from utility service providers to make upward adjustments to tariffs, there was a decision not to pass through any increments in electricity and water tariffs to consumers.
Verdict
The claim that there was no tariff increment in 2017 and that a reduction took place in 2018 is rated true.
Claim 2
In another December 3 Facebook post, Gideon Boako wrote: “For the avoidance of doubt, the NDC increased electricity tariffs by 90.93% in 2015 and 10% in 2016 under the IMF programme. In 2017 and 2018, the NPP did not increase it under the same IMF.”
Did electricity tariffs increase by 90.93% and 10% in 2015 and 2016, respectively?
Fact-check
In 2015, the PURC increased tariffs by a total of 90.93% in four reviews for that year. In the first quarter review (January to March 2015), there were no changes in the electricity tariff.
In April 2015, the commission increased electricity tariffs by 31.73%. The third-quarter review was supposed to result in a 51.73% increase in electricity tariffs, but this was deferred due to electricity supply challenges. Later, in its major tariff review in December, the charges went up by 59.2%.
There was, however, no change in the electricity tariffs in the two reviews the PURC issued in 2016.
A study published by the PURC in December 2020, on the trends in electricity tariffs between 2010 and 2020, further shows that there were no tariff adjustments in 2016 (see page 6 of the report here).
Fig. 3 – Image source: PURC
Verdict
The first part of Gideon Boako’s claim that electricity tariffs were increased by 90.93% is true, but the10% he mentioned for 2016 is false. Therefore, the claim is rated a mixture.
