President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been touting his government’s effort at expanding electricity access in the country, especially in rural communities.

According to him, the National Electricity Access rate increased from 79.3% in 2016 to 88.54% in 2022, making Ghana rank among the top six in Africa in electricity provision.

Speaking at the State of the Nation Address in parliament, the President made it clear the goal is to achieve a 90% universal electricity access rate by 2024.

“We are now at the most difficult stage of electricity provision around the country. The parts that are left are the very difficult-to-access areas. The National Electricity Access rate increased from 79.3% in 2016 to 88.54% in 2022, making us among the top six in Africa, and we are still expecting to achieve a 90% universal electricity access rate by 2024.”

“To reduce transmission system losses and voltage fluctuations and to improve the overall quality of the power supply, old lines are being replaced on the Western, Eastern, Coastal and Middle corridors. It is worth noting that three new sub-stations have been commissioned between 2021 and 2022 thereby improving reliability and efficiency.

Nana Addo told the house, the Electricity Company of Ghana is going through a digitization transformational agenda to make the power supply smooth.

“The Electricity Company of Ghana, has since the last quarter of 2022, embarked on an aggressive digital transformation program.

“This program, set to be completed by the end of April 2023, focuses on creating a cashless and efficient payment system. I am pleased to announce that, on 1st March 2023, all ECG District Offices became cashless. This is a major achievement by all standards. Since the start of this transformational program, we have so far seen a 25% increase in monthly revenues. The second phase of the program will see the digitization of postpaid bills and the digital tagging of all meters”.

“In our estimation, these initiatives should increase the monthly revenues of ECG by some 40% before the end of this year. I firmly believe that the initiatives, which have been so boldly rolled out by ECG, will make revenue leakage a thing of the past, and address consumer pain points in their interactions with ECG”.