ECG needs $70m annually to improve services

Cape Coast, Feb. 23, GNA - Mr Andrew Barfour, Director of Operations, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), on Thursday said the company required about 70 million dollars annually for an efficient and effective operation.
He said the company could only afford about 30 million dollars annually to embark on replacement and repairs of its equipment such as transformers and undertake minor upgrading.

Mr Barfour announced this at a seminar organised for Journalists by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and BUSAC Fund at Cape Coast.

It was under the theme, "Providing adequate power supply for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME's) -The role of Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) and ECG."

Twenty-four participants from the media and Forum of Small Scale Business Association (FOSSBA) attended the seminar. Mr Barfour therefore, appealed to the Government for assistance to embark on restructuring of the company to improve upon the quality of its services.
He noted that for ECG to perform creditably customers should settle their bills promptly and regularly because revenue collection had been a bane on its performance.
"About 67 per cent of our debts are with residential consumers," he added.
The Director of Operations said pilfering of cables and other equipment was another drain on its revenue generation capacity and affected the company's ability to provide quality service to customers. He said out of an annual power loss of 24.3 per cent incurred by the company, 50 per cent was through illegal power supply mostly by commercial consumers.
However, Mr Barfour was optimistic that within the next five years ECG would improve the quality of its services to satisfy consumers and urged the public to support the company by fulfilling their obligations. Mr Daniel Afropong, Western and Central Regional Manager of Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), said tariffs charged by ECG were uneconomical because they were lower than the cost of power sold to it by Volta River Authority (VRA).

Mr Afropong urged the management of ECG to review its tariffs above the cost of power sold by VRA to improve on its services. He said the policy objective of PURC was to protect consumers and ensured that quality service were rendered by ECG and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).

Mr Afropong explained that the PURC took into consideration the interest of consumers and investors before the tariffs charged by the utility companies were fixed.

He stressed the need for private investments in the utilities to provide quality services.

Mr Afropong commended the organisers for the seminar, and called for such regular interactions to create mutual understanding between the utility companies and consumers.

Mr Kwasi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult, said the increase in the country's population had affected the supply of power from ECG to its consumers.

Mr Bright Blewu, General Secretary of GJA, said the seminar would offer participants the opportunity to first-hand information about the operations of ECG and GWCL.

Mr Ebow Sackey, Central Regional Chairman of GJA, urged the participants to take interest in the deliberations and commended the organisers for the seminar.

Mr Asante Bordoh, Central Regional President of FOSSBA appealed to the management of ECG and GWCL to institute measures for effective supervision of their meter reading departments and a task force to undertake disconnection exercises.