"Disconnected Electricity Consumers Will Not Benefit from Covid-19 Reliefs" – Energy Minister
According to the Minister persons with their electricity lines disconnected prior to the president's announcement of reliefs will not benefit from it
Jonas Danquah 
Ghana’s Energy Minister, Mr John Peter Amewu, says electricity consumers whose lines were disconnected before the President’s announcement of relief packages will not benefit from it.
According to him, “if by the 9th of April, you are disconnected, then automatically, there is no way you are benefitting.”
“But if for some reason, your disconnection was because… and you have made an attempt to pay that bill, then of course you will be entitled to enjoy. Those that have been disconnected will not enjoy until they have been reconnected,” he said.
Mr Amewu who made this known at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday said government is expected to spend approximately GH₵1 billion to absorb the electricity bills of Ghanaians for the next three months as part of the relief measures.
The Energy Minister however noted that Ghanaians will start enjoying the full electricity reliefs from May 2020 instead of April.
He explained that, since the announcement was made on the 9th of April, some prepaid users had already bought electricity credits hence the need to shift the commencement date to May.
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Amewu thus indicated that in order not to deprive them of the president’s initiative, the implementation of the directive will be pushed forward by a month, covering May, June and July.
Responding to a question on how the figure would impact the electricity providing companies, Mr Amewu said, “the utilities are already suffering but in the midst of these difficulties for utilities, the human life is very key.”
“We hope as a responsible government, where we have brought this economy to, after this COVID-19, we will be able to bring the economy back,” he added.
