Accra West ECG recovers GH¢7.4 million in 3 months

The Accra West Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recovered GH¢7.4 million from customers surcharged for engaging in illegal connections over three months last year.

The Accra West Region of ECG has eight operational districts - the Ablekuma, Achimota, Amasaman, Bortianor, Dansoman, Kaneshie, Korle Bu and Nsawam districts.The money was recovered from 374 illegalities the company discovered during a three-month pilot revenue protection exercise from September to December.

The illegalities identified during the exercise included direct service connections, meter bypass, meter tampering and unauthorised service connections.

In total, 3.3 gigawatts of power, amounting to GH¢7.41 million, was recovered.

Interaction

The General Manager of the Accra West Region of the ECG, Emmanuel Ankrah, disclosed this during an interaction with journalists in Accra yesterday.

He said the region had intensified its crackdown on unauthorised electricity connections on customer premises in the region and that the move was aimed at reducing commercial losses and recouping lost revenue for the company.

To that end, the region had set up a special task force to visit customers in the region, to audit the state of installed meters and other electrical connections in their facilities.

Mr Ankrah revealed that the special task force was made up of technical staff, specially trained to identify all forms of illegalities at customer premises.

He warned that all customers who were identified as having engaged in illegalities would be disconnected, surcharged to pay a punitive amount and reported to the police for prosecution.

Advice

"Customers are advised to desist from conniving with self-styled employees of ECG, or electricians who interfere with our meter installations and illegally connect customers to the grid.

Such actions deny the ECG of much-needed revenue, negatively affecting the quality of services provided to customers," he said.

Mr Ankrah further warned that "to all who have done illegal connections, we would identify you and recover the value of all the power you have used for free, with penalty".

For his part, the Accra West Region Revenue Protection Manager, Dr Mark Owusu Ansah, revealed that the alarming figure from the pilot showed the gravity of the challenge of illegal connections.

He reiterated the commitment of the task force to visit all customer premises in the region and promised to create an unfriendly environment for all customers who wanted to engage in illegal connections.