Isaac Acheampong (General), former National TESCON Coordinator
A former National Coordinator of the Tertiary Students’ Confederacy (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party, Isaac Acheampong, has chided the John Mahama-led NDC administration over the increase in electricity and water tariffs, describing the increment as ‘insensitive’.
In a release, General, as Mr Acheampong is popularly known, indicated that Mr Mahama has short-changed Ghanaian youth with the increased utility tariffs, adding that it runs contrary to the government’s promise of a 24-hour economy.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced an increase in electricity tariffs by 14.75% and water tariffs by 4.02%.
“This increase comes at a time when public sector employees have been given a meagre 10% salary increment,” according to Mr Acheampong.
“For a government that promised a 24-hour economy anchored on industrialisation and committed to driving this policy with affordable electricity costs, it is astonishing that less than five months into office, the John Mahama-led administration’s main preoccupation has been to impoverish Ghanaians through these utility hikes.
“The youth stand to suffer the most from these obnoxious tariffs, as the artisanal economy—which employs a significant portion of the country’s youth—relies heavily on affordable electricity,” he noted.
Mr Acheampong explained that with the new tariff hike, “barbers, hairdressers, carpenters, cold store operators, ice-water sellers, and others are bearing the brunt.”
“The youth employed in the formal industrial sector are also severely affected, as these insensitive tariff increases often result in job cuts by industries attempting to offset operational losses,” he explained.
He noted that the tariff hike coincides with a time when students in tertiary institutions are being threatened with the responsibility of paying for their own utilities, while at the same time, thousands of young people have been “rendered jobless through the reckless termination of their employment.”
“From public sector workers to private sector employees, artisans to students, the youth across every sector of the economy have become the main targets of this insensitive government—one that has yet to create a single job to alleviate the hardships the Ghanaian youth are enduring,” he added.
