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Minister of Energy, Peter Amewu, has disclosed that the Government of Ghana will be expending over GHC 700 million to absorb electricity bills for Ghanaians for the months of April, May and June.

Addressing a section of the media in Accra on Thursday, April 16, 2020, the Energy Minister noted that the lifeline support for customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is targeted at about 1 million of electricity users in the country.

He explained that the 1 million lifeline ECG population means the number of electricity meters across the nation.

''The ECG lifeline customer poulation in Ghana currently is about 1 million Ghanaian. By the customer population, we are talking about the number of meters but not the population of people. So, we're talking about 1 million meters...The access rate today in Ghana is about 86/87 percent which means about 86 to 87 percent of the Ghanaian population have access to the national grid. So, this directive by His Excellency the President means that about 85 to 86 percent of Ghanaians would enjoy this access'', he expounded.

According to him, per estimation of a 50% cut on electricity bills, the government will spend about 9 million cedis per month and approximately GHC 732 million for the next three months.

''The customer population of 1 million of ECG is about 27.4% of the ECG total customer population. This means that at a current tariff level, government is absorbing almost an amount of 8.5 million Ghana cedis per month. For non-lifeline customers of which two thousand, seven hundred and eighty thousand, eight hundred and eighty-six are residential, and 1608 are special load tariff customers; a 50% discount on their electricity bill will translate into GHC 235.4 million per month. The total relief for ECG customers per month based on the estimated revenue is therefore GHC 244 million translating into GHC 732 million for the three months commencing from April, May and June'', he intimated.