Agyeman Budu, Managing Director (MD) for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), says Ghana and neighbouring Togo have intensified border patrols to quell the illegal cross border importation of meters into Ghana.
Such foreign meters, which are not Ghanaian specification, have accounted for the huge revenue losses by the ECG.
The last three years have seen the ECG losing about 26 percent revenue from a previous revenue loss of about 24 percent.
Another cause of revenue losses to the ECG is power theft, which has largely accounted for the most revenue losses.
To reduce such losses to the barest minimum, the ECG, at its head office, Accra, on Tuesday, launched and equipped its ‘Revenue Protection Task Force’.
The Task Force, eight with four members each, has been provided with vehicles to regularly move from house-to-house and company-to-company to inspect illegalities in power supply.
The ECG Revenue Task Force
The creation of the task force was a collaboration between ECG and the Ministry of Energy, so at the launch, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the sector Minister, charged the team to be mindful of their core duty, reminding them to eschew any deeds that would compromise their work.
“Stay on your track and ensure that whoever is found culpable is not spared. For once, customers who steal power must be put to shame and we will name and shame whoever is caught stealing power. We won’t spare you (team) so do not spare the customer who steals our power,” Mr Prempeh told the task force.
He explained that any revenue loss the ECG made adversely affected the value chain as it would be unable to pay its staff and suppliers.
“The ECG has millions of customers and so it is expected to raise more revenue to grow and venture into other viable projects for the best reliable power supply to the customers.”
He implored ECG customers to also play their part by demonstrating committed to the provider by engaging the services of qualified ECG staff to work for them.
Matthew Opoku Prempeh reminded the customers of the consequences of engaging in any form of illegal connection, “and I can promise all ECG customers that they will find the ECG distasteful should they be caught stealing power.”
In order to stay safe, he encouraged customers to live within their means by using only what they can pay.
By: Umar Sheriff Musah