The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has so far recovered a total of GH¢6,525,642.00 from customers who have indulged in illegal connections in the Tema Metropolis.
This followed visits by the National Task Force and ECG’s Revenue Protection Section to 12,730 customers in which they unearthed 1,537 illegal connections.
The Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, who disclosed this during the commissioning of the Juapong District office of ECG said they embarked on the hunt for illegal connections with the support of the Ministry of Energy in the last quarter of the year to raise revenue, check the integrity of their meters and clamp down on the unpatriotic act.
Mr Agyeman-Budu urged the general public to help the company fight the canker of illegal connections.
He called on defaulters to pay their electricity bills promptly and in full and encouraged them to download the ECG App and pay digitally.
The Juapong District Office will cater for the ECG district covering seven political districts namely; Ho West, Asuogyamang, North Tongue, Shai Osudoku, Lower Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo and Okere.
Services provided would cover payment of electricity bills, reporting of electrical faults, reporting of illegal connections, reconciliation of billing anomalies, application for new service connections and application for separate meters among others.
Mr Agyeman-Budu said all staff and logistics needed to operate as a fully fledged district had been provided adding that an outdoor store and more staff would be added soon.
He announced that the Krobo District office in Somanya had been closed due to security concerns for staff after threats by some youth groups in the area.
Mr Agyeman-Budu, therefore, encouraged customers from the Krobo area to call at the Juapong office to access services until it is safe to reopen the Somanya office.
He said: “In accordance with government’s digital agenda and to modernise ECG we are implementing the enterprise resource planning programme to enhance our business processes and drive efficiency. We have also launched the meter management services to aggregate the various metering systems onto a single platform for easy monitoring and management.”
Mr Agyeman-Budu said apart from that they were deploying geographic information system to manage their assets and using technology to quickly locate faults in the network and rectify speedily to further enhance supply availability and reliability.
The General Manager ECG Tema Region, Mr Emmanuel Akinie, said to serve their customers better and in line with their new vision to provide reliable electricity services to support economic growth and development of Ghana they were bringing their services closer to the customers.
He was hopeful that areas such as Juapong, Volo, Vume, Dorfor Adidome, Torgome, Akwamufie, Apegusu, Mpakadan, Asikuma, Anum, Boso, Kissiflui Norvisi, Kpota and surrounding areas would now have easier accessibility to transact business with ECG.
FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, TEMA