The Accra West Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana has from January, 2018 to October 12, 2018, retrieved Four Million and Thirty-Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Five Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 4,032,855.00) from 777 customers, who illegally used power.
Some of the illegalities the customers engaged in included- meter by-pass, direct connections, meter tampering and unauthorised service connections in areas including Kaneshie, Korlebu, Dansoman, Ablekuma, Nsawam, Bortianor and Achimota District.
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Mr George Appiah-Kubi, Accra West Regional General Manager, disclosed that the monies were retrieved as a result of a massive revenue protection campaign, launched earlier this year to rid the system of power theft, which deprived the Company of revenue.
“We have formed a special revenue protection task force whose duty is to visit meters installed in the region and audit the authenticity of the electrical connections in those facilities. The result of the consistent monitoring by the task force is the retrieval of monies, which the Company would otherwise have lost”, he said.
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Mr Appiah-Kubi bemoaned the negative effects of power theft on the Company’s operations. He noted that aside impeding prompt payment to power producers for the power sold to ECG, the loss of revenue through theft, constrains the Company from regularly undertaking system improvement and expansion projects.
Mr Ebenezer Yao Fiador, Accra West Revenue Protection Manager, appealed to the public to volunteer information on illegal activities.
He said the identity of persons who provide credible information would be protected, and same persons will be paid a percentage of any amount recovered.
Mr. Fiador assured that the revenue protection exercise would be intensified and institutionalized to achieve zero-percent power theft in the region.
“We are collaborating with the security Agencies and constantly revising our revenue protection tactics to stay ahead of the criminals,” he said.
The total amount of GH¢ 4,032,855.00 represents the cost of 3,801.726 kilowatts hour (kwh) of electricity, stolen by the seven hundred and seventy-seven (777) customers.