The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is to expand its pre-paid metering system to more rural communities in the Western Region.

Mr. Alex Anwobor, the Western Regional Commercial Manager of ECG, who announced this at a media briefing in Takoradi, said the pre-paid metering was currently limited to Sekondi and Takoradi areas, adding that the facility would be extended to Tarkwa, Bogoso, Prestea, Agona-Nkwanta, Elubo, Sefwi-Bekwai, Sefwi-Wiawso and Bibiani.

Additionally, he said, the ECG also had plans of increasing revenue collection sale points.

Mr. Anwobor said the Company would leverage on mobile telephony by exploring the possibility of customers buying power through the mobile money transfer where customers could purchase pre-paid scratch cards at pharmacy shops and shopping malls.

“The management of ECG is also considering introducing emergency credits so that if one runs out of credit on the pre-paid metre, he/she can easily re-load credits at the comfort of his/her home or office”, he said.

He said the company intends to establish more customer and fault reporting centres across the region for prompt response to electrical faults and damages to its installations.

He appealed to the media to publish pictures and names of culprits involved in illegal connections in their respective media outlets to serve as a deterrent to others.

Mr. Anwobor said illegal power connections, meter tempering and cable thefts are the main causes of losses to the company.

He said as of August, company arrested 271 culprits involved in illegal power connections who had used the power for free for a period of 354, 860 kilowatt/hours worth GH¢316,385.

Mr. Anwobor called for mutual and beneficial collaboration with the media, in order to improve service and operational efficiency to its customers.

Madam Jacqueline Ofori-Atta, the Regional General Manager of ECG, expressed the Company’s commitment to improve its relationship with the media and help them improve their services to the customers.

She said the regional ECG had 11 operational districts extending to the Central and Ashanti regions with over 350,000 customers served by over 600 staff.

Madam Ofori-Atta said it had 13 electricity sub-stations and over 2,000 secondary sub-stations with installed capacity of 200 megawatts power, adding that the Company was embarking on electricity expansion projects and that 1,000 communities would soon be connected to the national electricity grid.

She said with staff commitment the Company would surmount all its challenges and accomplish its vision and mission.

Meanwhile, corporate institutions in the Western Region are indebted to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to a sum of GH¢302 million as unpaid electricity bills as at this past August.

Out of which ministries, departments and agencies alone owed the company GH¢74 million representing 25 percent of the total debt.

It is believed if these debts are collected, it would improve upon its financial situation and help in expanding the electricity infrastructure to the rural areas and improve upon customer satisfaction.