GHANA’S NEW YEAR CRISIS: NDC OPENS 2026 BY MAKING LIFE MORE EXPENSIVE
Ghanaians welcomed January 1, 2026, not with relief, not with hope, but with higher bills as a New Year gift from the NDC. Electricity tariffs jumped by 9.86%. Water tariffs shot up by a shocking 15.92%. This was not an accident. It was a decision approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) under the Multi-Year Tariff Order (2026–2030). And it happened under the NDC-led administration.
This is the reality: light and water are not luxuries. They are life. When their prices go up sharply, life becomes harder immediately. Rent does not wait. School fees do not wait. Food prices do not wait. Yet the NDC chose to begin the year by taking more money from the pockets of ordinary people.
A near 16% increase in water tariffs is not a small adjustment. It is a blow. It hits the market women, the mechanics, the hairdressers, the small printing shops, the cold store operators, and the young graduates running startups. Electricity rising by almost 10% means higher production costs, higher prices, and fewer jobs. This is how businesses collapse quietly.
Compare this with the NPP record. When the NPP managed the economy, utility reviews were measured and cautious, often keeping increases low or delaying them to protect households and businesses. The NPP understood a simple truth: you cannot grow an economy by choking the people who drive it.
The NDC’s decision is worse because of timing. Workers recently received modest wage adjustments, yet these tariff hikes wipe out those gains instantly. What remains? More struggle. More borrowing. More frustration. This is not development. This is pressure and hardship.
Ask the hard questions:
- How will infant industries survive when their basic inputs suddenly cost much more?
- How will young people starting life manage when every bill rises at once?
- How does a nation industrialize when power and water become heavier burdens instead of tools for growth?
Let’s be clear and honest. Put party colors aside. These increments hurt. It hurts families. It hurts jobs. It hurts productivity. It slows growth. It deepens inequality.
The NPP believes in protecting the ordinary Ghanaian, growing businesses, and expanding opportunity, and not beginning a new year with tariffs that drain hope and income. Ghana deserves leadership that reduces pain, not multiplies it.
This is not just politics.
It is about survival, and Ghanaians must remember who eases their burden and who increases it.
By: Mr Blessing Mantey
