The recently embarked upon mass disconnection exercise by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has once again brought to the fore the age old problem of making the state electricity distributor efficient.
This is not the first time ECG is embarking on this exercise, it has become a ritual that every Managing Director must embarked upon, but what is missing is the lasting solution that would save the general public the embarrassment they have to endure.
The solution is indeed not far-fetched, it does not make any economic sense, why domestic consumers of power, should be on post payment meters,instead of prepaid meters.
Most homes are walled and gated, so it is not easy for staff of ECG to get into the houses and read meters for billing, that is why in the wisdom of the white man, he introduced prepaid metres, which allows you to load your meter, once you run out of credit.
This newspaper is baffled as to why postpaid meters are still being fixed in homes, when consumers of electricity, would rather prefer prepaid.
Electricity is a necessity for both domestic and industrial use. It is the wheel on which every economy thrives, that is why it is important that, managers of the economy, must encourage and support the EG to do the right thing.
A lot of people are being inconvenience in the ongoing mass disconnection exercise, or revenue mobilization exercise, not because they refused to pay for power they have consumed, but simply because they did not get the bill.
In the considered opinion of this newspaper, the next step for ECG, must be to order enough prepaid meters to meet the growing demand.
Spending money that you do not have to chase people who are owing you, does not make any economic sense. The wastage in the system is just too much.
The Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama in an interview with Bernard Avle, said the move is to ensure efficiency in the system and also prevent long queues at vending points.
“Hopefully in a month or two, with the digital process that would be a story of the past because of the NFC at the back of your phone when the SDKs and APIs are done you will be able to touch your card to the back of your phone [and] you should be able to purchase and there will be no need to queue for all meters.
“Very soon there will be a proper launch when we are done with this, and we are going to be customer driven. Even postpaid can sit in the comfort of their homes and pay from the App.”
The only way to ensure efficiency is to make prepaid meters available and cheap for those who want it or better still make it mandatory to be distributed to domestic consumers of electricity.
