Parliament quizzes minister on electrification projects
A total of 999,135 pieces of prepaid meters were imported into the country from 2012 to 2015 at a cost of $99.27 million.
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Giving the breakdown at Parliament yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Power, Mr John Jinapor, said 235,000 pieces of the prepaid meters at a cost $14.5 million were for the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) operational areas while 764,135 pieces at a cost of $84,723,351 were for Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) operational areas.
He was answering questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) on electrification projects and energy meters.
Meters importation
Mr Jinapor said the government imported post-paid meters as part of the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) which was approved by Parliament.
However, he said, the government did not import prepaid meters.
Rather, he said the ECG and NEDCo procured prepaid meters from five local manufacturing companies.
Prepaid meters
Mr Jinapor said the introduction of prepaid energy meters was a means of enabling the ECG and NEDCo to collect revenue upfront in order to finance their operations and improve on their efforts to provide quality services to customers.
"This was also intended to empower customers to manage the use of electricity by avoiding wastes and also prevent the accumulation of unpaid bills," he said.
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Mr Jinapor said following government approval, a larger project was scheduled to replace all credit meters with prepaid meters for all ministries and metropolitian, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
He mentioned resource constraint as the main hindrance to acquiring more prepaid meters.
He gave a hint that the Ministry of Power would be going to Parliament soon to seek approval for some money to support the ECG and NEDCo towards the purchase of prepaid meters.