PURC Ghana ranked fourth in 2022 ERI Africa Ranking

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has been ranked fourth in the 2022 Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa.

The PURC ranked fourth (4th) among the forty-four African regulatory institutions sampled, only after Uganda, Egypt and Senegal.

This was achieved based on the significant progress made by the Commission in the operations of its functions as per the legal mandate, clarity of roles of independence, accountability, transparency, predictability, participation, and open access to information for various stakeholders.

Forty-three (43) countries in Africa with forty-four regulatory institutions, participated in the assessment process, which was based on well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks, the capacity to exercise the necessary regulatory oversight and authority on the regulated entities, and the ability to achieve measurable outcomes.

According to the Executive Secretary of the PURC Dr. Ismael Ackah, being ranked fourth this year is an improvement on the Commission’s 7th position in the previous year.

“The Commission owes this to the cooperation of its numerous stakeholders to which the Commission is grateful.”

For the year under review (2022) and in the interest of deepening its transparency, the Commission was able to among others, undertake consumer service clinics, which enabled the Commission to bring its complaints resolution processes closer to consumers; published the reckoner (electricity and water), which enables consumers to compute their own tariffs based on consumption levels; redesigned the Commission’s website to accommodate new developments, such as hosting the public utilities regulatory information system (PURIS); as well as constituting regulatory audit teams to undertake verification exercises, based on submitted investment needs of the Utilities.

Furthermore, the Commission made significant progress on transparency in its tariff-setting processes by publishing approved guidelines for setting tariffs, and quality of service measures to guide the regulated utilities, and improved considerably on its institutional capacity to enable it to fulfill its mandate.

Through this, the Commission was able to reverse the tariff structure, which was previously punitive for the industry. This was to enhance the competitiveness of Micro, Small, and Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.

The ERI has evolved considerably since 2018 when only 15 countries participated in it, compared with 44 countries in 2022, which now participate in the ERI. The Director for Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation at the African Development Bank noted that “…the ERI has been influential not only in Africa but also the rest of the world”.