Tamale residents accept new prepaid meters

According to the Customer Service Supervisor for the Tamale area office of NEDCo, Mr Imoro Ibrahim, over 10,000 prepaid meters had so far been installed.

“We expect more to be installed in a  few months time after the public are given better education about the functioning of these new meters,” he stated.

Last year, when NEDCo embarked on an exercise in Tamale to replace the existing post-paid meters with the new prepaid meters, many residents opposed the move claiming that the new meters were over billing them.

Some interest groups even staged protests through the principal streets of Tamale threatening to destroy the machines if NEDCo proceeded with the installation.

This compelled NEDCo to suspend the replacement exercise and commence a public education programme about the operation of the new meters.

Consequently, many residents have accepted the new meters and have been giving testimonies of how convenient the meters are.

“It is a good machine. Now we spend less on power because the amount we spend to buy power each month is less than the amount we were being charged by VRA for power consumed,” said Abukari Saani, a resident of Nyanshegu.

“With the new meters, you can actually tell how much power you consume and, therefore, determine the use of electricity in your house,” Ms Ayisha Abdulai, who lives in Gumani also stated.

In spite of the wide acceptance of the new meters, NEDCo is continuing with the public education exercise and has been meeting with residents in various suburbs of Tamale.

A team from the Tamale Area office of NEDCo recently made a stop at Fuo during which some of the residents complained about the difficulties they faced in getting personnel of the VRA to address their complaints.

“We had problems with our meter and I made several complaints for the VRA, but they have failed to respond,” Issah Mohammed lamented.

Another resident, Mr Yakubu Abdulai, demanded an explanation to what the VRA described as service charge.

In response to these concerns, the Customer Service Supervisor, Mr Imoro Ibrahim, explained that the service charge was a levy imposed on every power user by the government, adding that every consumer was required to pay this fee once every month.

He indicated that the VRA was considering a system where it could have individual vendors of power in each community to make it easy for consumers to recharge their cards.

Mr Ibrahim said it was widely accepted that prepaid billing was the best way to regulate the use of electricity in the country.

He said apart from helping the VRA to get adequate revenue, prepaid meters made it possible for households and commercial entities to plan their consumption and this also contributed to saving energy because people avoided the misuse of power.

The Acting Manager for Corporate Communications of NEDCo, Alhaji Mohammed Siam, expressed surprise at the failure of the VRA to address the complaints of some customers.

Story by Nurudeen Salifu