The Tema Region Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has over the past one year recovered a total of GH¢7,855,404.90 from power theft.

The amount which has been paid to the ECG formed part of a total estimated GH¢9,725,011.18 that was stolen by customers through illegal connections.

Madam Sakyiwaa Mensah, Public Relations Officer, ECG Tema Region, told the Ghana News Agency at Tema that the Revenue Protection and Loss Control Unit of the office was able to determine a loss of 10.81GWh of energy amounting to the total figure.

She added that the remaining amount of GH¢1,869,606.28 was yet to be paid as some customers had an agreed payment plan and terms over a specified period with the Company.

She disclosed that illegal connection of energy continued to be an issue for the operations and commercialization of ECG’s activities adding that 12,635 meters of residential, non-residential, and Special Load Tariff (SLT) customers were monitored between January and December 2020.

Out of the said meters monitored in all the seven districts, 541 were discovered to have issues with illegal connections including; meter bypass, unauthorized service connections and meter tampering.

The seven districts under the ECG Tema Region are; Tema North, Tema South, Nungua, Ada, Afienya, Prampram and Krobo.

The PRO said the Revenue Protection and Loss Control Unit could not monitor as many meters as it planned due to the COVID-19 restrictions including; physical human movement, social and safety protocols which made usual visits to certain areas, and homes difficult.

She explained that the Tema Region Office of the ECG under the leadership of Emmanuel Akinie, who is the General Manager are committed to taking “legal action against culprits of illegal connections as the activities bother on criminal intent and action”.

She said, “The Electricity Company of Ghana Limited has a legal mandate to prosecute persons involved in illegal energy theft”.

On behalf of the ECG Tema Region General Manager, the PRO reiterated ECG’s policy to reward people who inform the Company of illegal connections with six per cent of the amount involved in that specific case and therefore urged the public to report such acts.

Touching on COVID-19 and the Company’s operations, the PRO stated that they were guided as much as possible by the protocols in all their operations and dealings with customers, and therefore, encouraged their clients to do same.