I did not Offer Free Electricity and Water for Votes – Prez Akufo-Addo

Ghana's President, Nana Akufo-Addo Dankwa has dismissed comments from the camp of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that government's 'free water and free electricity' initiative was aimed at influencing his re-election bid in the upcoming polls.

The President responding to the comments during his tour of Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital on Tuesday,  said the free utilities initiative by government was to cushion the ordinary Ghanaian amid the Covid-19 pandemic .

According to him, his government deemed it important to take out some loads from the heads of Ghanaians during this difficult time.

“That was being done because the pandemic has brought a lot of difficulties to the people of Ghana. The first responsibility of government is to protect the people especially in times of difficulty”.

He continued “a government which is not able to do that in times of difficulty, in my view isn’t a government worth staying.

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President averred that the free water and free electricity were necessary to protect the Ghanaian people at this stage but not necessarily to win votes.

“A caring government is a government when things become difficult for his people will step in because of good policies and efficient management to be able to protect the people and that’s what we have done”, he stated.

“If our economy had not been strengthened in the three years before the pandemic broke out, these measures you are talking about would have been very expensive and impossible to provide free water, free electricity and free meals. All these are indications of the strength of the Ghanaian economy before the pandemic,” he added.

In April this year, President Akufo-Addo announced three months free electricity for some category of Ghanaians, as well as three months absorption of water bills for all Ghanaians to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Finance Minister, presenting the 2020 Mid-Year Budget Review yesterday [July 23] extended the package earlier announced by Akufo-Addo with little differences.

The ‘free Electricity’ was constricted to ‘lifeline’ consumers for 6 Months, while ‘free water’ was extended for three months to all Ghanaians.

“It takes a caring government of the people, and with that, I mean, a Government of all the people, to offer cost-free water to all across the country: representing all domestic and commercial customers in Ghana for three months. 

“It takes a caring government to be for the people and for business, large and small, to choose to subsidise electricity consumption by 50 per cent to 4,086,286 households and 686,522 businesses at a cost of ¢1.02 billion in three months. And we will extend the coverage for lifeline customers for another three months,” he said.