Herbert Krapa, the Minister of State at the Energy Ministry, has disclosed government’s successful restructuring of the legacy debt owed to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), addressing a significant issue that had jeopardized their continued operations.
This strategic move, is intended to foster sustainability in the energy sector and help maintain a stable electricity supply.
Herbert Krapa, emphasized the positive impact of this debt renegotiation, stating that it positions Ghana for future success.
He made these remarks during a visit to the Accra West Regional office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), where he encouraged the power distributor, to rebuild public trust by promptly resolving customer complaints related to meter acquisition and other service issues.
Herbert Krapa, charged the ECG, to intensify its efforts to win back dissipated public trust in the institution, while also urging the leadership of the power distributor to implement stronger systems to ensure that customer grievances are promptly and effectively addressed.
He was concerned about a deficit in public trust in ECG, stressing the importance of winning back public confidence.
“I have also told them [ECG] that they have to work harder to win back the trust of customers. ECG is really set up to sell services to the Ghanaian people and customers and in recent times, it is obvious if you listen to the cry of the people…if you listen to the sentiments of the people on the ground, it is obvious that the trust that is supposed to exist between the utilities ECG and customer…it is obvious that trust is fast dissipating.
“I have urged them… to make sure they work very hard to win back that trust. How you win back that trust is ensuring that people have access to you and you are dealing with the problems they are bringing to you in an efficient and timely manner then when you tell them you have a fault, they believe you,” he stated.
“I have also admonished them [ECG] to make sure they are doing all of this within hours. I have told the Managing Director that we can’t accept ECG taking forever or too long to resolve the complaints and challenges of customers.
“They have to work harder to make sure customer complaints are resolved within hours. I went round the customer service office…the processes can be compressed so that we remove the duplication and bring in more efficiency,” Herbert Krapa added.
Herbert Krapa, urged ECG to speed up the provision of meters to its customers.
His comment, follows the ECG’s current backlog of over one million meters, which is negatively impacting power supply and revenue collection.
Mr Krapah, expressed concern about the slow pace of meter distribution and emphasised the need for a quicker process to address customer challenges.
“You have a backlog of about one million or more meters that you need to deploy. That’s a major problem that we need to tackle,” he stated.
Mr Krapah, acknowledged the ECG’s Loss Reduction Programme and expressed confidence in its potential to resolve the meter challenges.
“When I chaired, the initial report I received was that you were doing 40,000 a month and I challenged them to do 100,000 a month.
“I think given the backlog, ECG needs to expedite the process of deploying meters,” he said.
On her part, the Director of Customer Services at ECG’s Head Office, Dr Belinda Dwamena, highlighted challenges related to customer behaviour.
She revealed that some customers are deliberately damaging their meters to steal power.
“We make investments just to make life easy for all our customers, but then we end up getting the customers trying to use nails and other things to put into these cables that we’ve laid throughout and neatly done this in your house to steal from us.
“We want to use this medium to tell you that we are coming after you. We are coming after you. We have our task force consultant here. We have our revenue protection team and we will come after you,” she warned.
