We’ve resolved prepaid card challenge — ECG

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says it has resolved the build, operate and transfer (BOT) challenge which made it impossible for some consumers in the Accra West Region of the company to purchase power for about two weeks.

According to the company, faulty prepaid cards which were corrupted as a result of the challenge on the BOT were now being reactivated, while other cards were being replaced to enable consumers to purchase electricity.

The Managing Director of the ECG, Mr Samuel Boakye-Appiah, who announced this at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, said a team from the ECG worked throughout the weekend to resolve the situation.

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Background

More than 30,000 customers in the Kaneshie, Achimota, Korle Bu and Dansoman operational districts of the company who use the BOT prepaid meters had been unable to buy power for about two weeks because their cards were corrupted by a fault in the ECG server.

Those affected were customers who purchased credit after November 11, 2017.

The situation generated a lot of tension, as hundreds of customers gathered at the company’s project site for their cards to be reconfigured.

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How it was resolved

As part of the measures to resolve the situation, Mr Boakye-Appiah said, the company set up data centres for the reactivation of the faulty cards in the four affected districts.

“We worked throughout the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, closing after midnight on both days,” he said, adding that all four affected districts also worked to reactivate the faulty cards.

Currently, he said, the reactivation of the cards was still ongoing and that over 40,000 cards had so far been reactivated, although the company had earlier estimated that about 30,000 consumers were affected. 

To prevent a future recurrence, Mr Boakye-Appiah said, the company would undertake a comprehensive review of its processes and systems and come up with contingency measures to deal with such occurrences.

While apologising for the inconvenience and stress caused by the BOT vending challenge, he said “we are working hard to improve on our services”.