THE Board Chairman of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Squadron Leader Clend Sowu (retd), has advised electricity consumers to stop blaming the ECG for power outages in the country.
He called for a better understanding of the role of companies associated with electricity generation, supply and distribution in the country, which are the Volta River Authority (VRA) and GRIDCO in addition to the ECG, adding that the two could be equally blamable for power outages.
Squadron Leader Sowu was addressing a durbar of workers of the company in the southern sector of the Volta Region, which was climaxed with the inauguration of the Keta office of the ECG at a ceremony at Keta.
He said energy was the most important sector of any economy anywhere and that the Energy Commission, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, VRA, ECG, Ministry of Energy and citizens to organise themselves together in order to wage a war against darkness and poverty.
He said by 2012 the ECG would be able to sell power in 90 per cent of all towns in its area of operation and that would involve selling quality electricity in 13,500 towns, communities and polling stations by December, 2012.
Squadron Leader Sowu projected that within the medium term, all customers in urban areas would be on prepaid meters.
He promised that outage hours within the operational domain of ECG would be as
low as possible with a minimal loss in networks.
In his address, the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Cephas Gakpo, said some challenges facing thecompany were the high growth in demand for services, lack of redundancy and alternative source of supply and the severe erosion of tariff granted the company from 2007.
He, however, said the government had committed $430 million to an expansion programme of the company and had also shown interest in the efficacy of the prepaid system for revenue mobilisation and revenue protection.
Mr Gakpo said the company would rise up to the challenges of checking theft and commercial malfeasance, adding that workers should eschew plain criminal activities which would negatively affect the company.
He stressed the need for good relationship with customers in order to fulfil the strategic issues facing the company, stressing that workers should show positive attitude to work to prevent dissatisfied customers from becoming ‘terrorists’ against the company.
The Volta Regional Manager of ECG, Mr Williams Hutton-Mensah, said the new office was an
attraction and made it a “congenial destination for customers”.
He said a company’s image improved with good and decent offices, and expressed the hope that huge benefits would be derived from the new offices.
The Keta Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Sylvester Tornyeavah, announced that 120 communities in the municipality were to be connected to the national grid.
He commended the new ECG board for the initiative exhibited so far.
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