Signage of the Electricity Company of Ghana
The Electricity Company of Ghana says it has discovered 1,537 illegal power connections across the country and had recovered more than GHC6.52 million from the offenders, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, Managing Director, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has disclosed.
Mr Agyeman-Budu, who was speaking at the opening of the ECG’s Juapong District Office, said the National Task Force and the ECG’s Revenue Protection Section with support of the Ministry of Energy visited over 12,730 customers to check the integrity of energy metres and discovered the illegalities.
He said to motivate the public to assist in fighting the canker of illegal connections, ECG had announced a handsome reward package for informants who would give them tip-off for illegal connections.
“Informants will be given six per cent of the total monies to be recovered as a result of their patriotic duty. We assure the public that the identities of all informants will be strictly protected at all times,” he added.
Touching on bills payment, he appealed to all customers to pay their bills promptly and in full as ECG had embarked on aggressive revenue collection exercise till the end of the year.
The ECG Managing Director, therefore, pleaded with all defaulting customers to either visit the Company’s various offices and outlets to pay their electricity bills promptly while encouraging them to also download the ECG App and pay digitally.
He gave the assurance that the Company on its part was ready to fulfil its mission to provide quality, safe and reliable electricity services to support the economic growth and development of Ghana.
“At ECG, we strive to execute this national mandate with all diligence and professionalism, in fulfilment of this sacred mandate, our strategy is to bring our services closer to the doorsteps of our cherished customers,” he added.
On the operations of the newly opened new district office at Juapong in the Volta Region, Mr Agyeman-Budu said it was bring services close to the doorsteps of customers in the district.
The office would serve customers in Juapong, Volo, Vume, Dorfor Adidome, Torgome, Akwamufie, Apegusu, Mpakadan, Asikuma, Anum, Boso, Kissiflui Norvisi, Kpota and surrounding areas.
Mr Agyeman-Budu said the services that would be available in the ultra-modern office, included payment of electricity bills, reporting of electricity faults, reporting of illegal connections, and reconciliation of billing anomalies.
Other services were the provision of customer educational material on ECG’s operations, tips on efficient uses of electricity, applications for new service connections, applications for separate meter connections, general enquiries about electricity issues, and other related services.
He indicated that the office would help the ECG to fulfil its mission of providing quality, safe and reliable electricity services to support the economic growth and development of Ghana.
He said at ECG, they strived to execute this national mandate with all diligence and professionalism, adding that in its fulfilment, their strategy was to bring their services closer to the doorsteps of the customers by building such district offices.
Mr Agyeman-Budu said ECG was also deploying the power of technology to bring their services beyond the customers’ doorsteps into the comfort of their homes and rooms with the use of its vibrant award-winning social media handles and Power App platform.
Mr Emmanuel Akinie, ECG General Manager Tema Region, said the opening of the new office was in line with ECG’s new mission to provide safe, quality and reliable electricity services to support the economic growth and development of Ghana.
He said ECG’s new vision was to be a financially sustainable and customer-focused energy service provider by 2024, they believed that bringing their services closer to customers would help ease travel time.
He said it would also reduce travel time for the Company’s side, especially where faults were concerned.
This, he noted, would create a much more enabling working relationship between ECG and its customers to be served by the District Office.
He said they were committed to providing convenience in all their service delivery as well as providing value-added services to meet the expectations of customers through strategic decisions.
GNA