The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) is a data-driven organization, where regulatory activities have been streamlined and automated. This is to enable the Commission to use data efficiently at every stage of the regulatory and decision-making process.
The Commission has identified digitization of regulatory activities and processes through the deployment of a centralized Database Management System (DBMS) as an important step towards enhancing transparency and inclusiveness in regulatory systems, and solution to a significant number of regulatory issues.
In June 2021, the African Development Bank (AfDB) with funding support from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Trust Fund, piloted the first phase of the DBMS initiative for the Commission. The deployment of the centralized DBMS in Ghana has been a trail-blazing regulatory initiative, which has generated interest from the regulatory community across Africa.
Dr. Ishmael Ackah, Executive Secretary of the PURC, explained that the Impact of DBMS Phase 1 has been very important to the success chalked by the PURC. According to Dr. Ackah, since inception of the DBMS, the programme has enhanced PURC’s regulatory functions, having served 8,950 customers, since the DBMS Helpdesk became operational in 2021. He noted that, the DBMS also hosts an e-library, which holds 4GB of data, a document management system, containing 34GB of PURC data, which is used by staff. Furthermore, the database has facilitated the interaction between the Commission and customers by receipt and responses to 34,913 text messages of customers. As at December 4, 2023, over 1000 downloads of the PURC Customer app, with 526 customers signing up, and an average rating of 4.4 stars was recorded. Total complaints recorded through DBMS since 2021 also amounted to 20,810 with total complaints resolved standing at 18,026 representing 86.62% resolution rate. The rest of the cases are at various stages of resolution.
On her part, Ms. Fasika Eyerusalem, Country Manager for the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) in Ghana, indicated that, in June 2021, the Bank through the Korean-African Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Trust Fund sponsored the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to deploy the highly impactful Database Management System (DBMS) as a one-stop solution to enhance regulatory performance along key indicators. These indicators include transparency, and stakeholder participation in the regulatory process, accountability of the regulator to its stakeholders, quality of service delivery, monitoring among others.
According to Ms. Fasika, “the deployment of the DBMS for PURC under phase one is a major contributory factor to the improved regulatory performance observed for Ghana on the Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI), having moved from the 7th ranked position in 2021 to the 4th position in 2022”. She noted that, the Bank was delighted to observe that, the DBMS continues to have a positive impact and traction in Ghana and across the continent.