The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has been ranked fourth in the 2022 Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa.
This was disclosed when the African Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank (WB) report on the Global Electricity Regulatory Index (GERI) was launched virtually.
ERI Report revealed that, the PURC ranked fourth (4th) among the forty-four African regulatory institutions sampled, only after Uganda, Egypt and Senegal.
“This was achieved based on the significant progress made by the Commission in the operations of its functions as per the legal mandate, clarity of roles of independence, accountability, transparency, predictability, participation, and open access to information for various stakeholders.”
Global Electricity Regulatory Index (GERI) report
According to the Global Electricity Regulatory Index report, forty-three (43) countries in Africa with forty-four regulatory institutions participated in the assessment process; which was based on well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks, the capacity to exercise the necessary regulatory oversight and authority on the regulated entities as well as the ability to achieve measurable outcomes.
The well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks were categorized into three pillars; Regulatory Governance Index (RGI), Regulatory Substance Index (RSI) and Regulatory Outcome Index (ROI).
The Report further explained that, RGI assessed the extent to which the laws, procedures, standards, and policies governing the electricity sector provided for a transparent, predictable, and credible regulatory framework and as well met international standards.
“RSI evaluated how well electricity sector regulators carried out their mandate and implemented practices and processes that affected regulatory outcomes whereas ROI measured the perspectives of utility distribution companies (and/or consumers), including the degree to which the regulator had a positive or negative impact on the sector,” the report added.
Executive Secretary of PURC Recounts Efforts By Commission To Attain This Recognition
Dr. Ishmael Ackah, Executive Secretary of the PURC, expressed his joy and gratitude as the company was ranked fourth this year indicating an improvement on the Commission’s 7th position in the previous year. “The Commission owes this to the cooperation of its numerous stakeholders to which the Commission is grateful,” he noted.
“For the year under review (2022) and in the interest of deepening its transparency, the Commission was able to among others, undertake consumer service clinics, which enabled the Commission to bring its complaints resolution processes closer to consumers; published the reckoner (electricity and water), which enables consumers to compute their own tariffs based on consumption levels.
“We also worked on redesigning the Commission’s website to accommodate new developments, such as hosting the public utilities regulatory information system (PURIS), as well as constituting regulatory audit teams to undertake verification exercises, based on submitted investment needs of the Utilities.”
Dr. Ishmael Ackah
Not limited to that, the Commission made a significant progress on transparency in its tariff setting processes by publishing approved guidelines for setting tariffs, quality of service measures to guide the regulated utilities, and improved considerably on its institutional capacity to enable it fulfil its mandate, he said.
Dr. Ishmael Ackah in conclusion disclosed that, through this the Commission was able to reverse the tariff structure, which was previously punitive for industry. This was to enhance the competitiveness of Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
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