Used fridge ban effective July

The ban on the importation and use of second-hand refrigerators and air-conditioners in Ghana takes full effect in four days.

Importers of those appliances have up to Monday July 1, 2013 to dispose of them.

Ghana’s Energy Commission is leading the enforcement of the ban.

The implementation of the ban was to have taken effect from January 2013, but fridge importers with special quotas were given a reprieve following complaints to the Energy Commission.

Head of the Energy Efficiency Unit at the Energy Commission, Kofi Agyarko, has told XYZ News time is up to roll out the full ban.

He said: “They asked for a reprieve which was granted up to the end of June…It wasn’t a blanket reprieve…after June the ban takes full effect”.

Mr. Agyarko said consumers must now benefit from the rebate scheme under which used refrigerators are being exchanged for new ones at subsidised prices.

He said the Commission intends facilitating the replacement of 15,000 second-hand fridges with new ones by the end of 2013.