Guinea EDG studies Ghana’s metering system
A six-member delegation from the Electricité de Guinée (EDG) has paid a four-day visit to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to study the implementation of its prepaid metering system.
Advertisement
As part of the visit, the delegation also visited local companies that produced the prepaid meters in Ghana.
At a brief ceremony to bid the delegation farewell at the ECG head office last Friday, the leader of the delegation, Dr Kouyate Laye, said Guinea was in the process of implementing the prepaid metering system.
However, he said, the decision had been resisted by the staff of the EDG and the public in Guinea, explaining that “the staff were threatened and feel they might lose their jobs as a result of the new system”.
He said those who were using post-paid meters were also scared to pay more than they were paying.
Therefore, Dr Laye said the President of Guinea, Mr Alpha Conde, had directed the company to understudy countries that had successfully implemented prepaid to effectively apply it in Guinea.
Other countries the delegation had visited were Benin, Senegal and Togo.
Dr Laye thanked ECG for the opportunity, saying they had been educated on the system and the information would go a long way to help in their implementation.
Other Trending Stories
‘Ghana has the experience’
The General Manager of the Public Relation Department of the ECG, Mr William Boateng, said Ghana had chalked up successes and experiences in the prepaid metering system since it started its implementation in 1995.
Despite the recent challenges about the billing system of the prepaid meters, he said, Ghana had made progress in the implementation of the prepaid system.
To enable the prepaid system work efficiently, he said, a robust ICT infrastructure was required.
Mr Boateng noted the recent public outcry about the overbilling and other discrepancies which were some of the challenges that arose from ICT and technologies used in the prepaid system.
He added that the system needed to be programmed in such a way that it reflected a complex tariff to show the monthly subsidies and other tariffs.