Samuel Mahama, Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has disclosed that about 9,000 prepaid meters have so far been successfully installed in the Krobo land.
Mr Mahama said the exercise was still ongoing as more than 20,000 prepared meters were expected to be installed in the area.
He disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency during a working visit to the Somanya ECG office to interact with staff on the installation.
“We can see that quite a good number have been welcoming our efforts and we are well within the 9,000 of prepaid meter installations, out of over 20,000, we are still ongoing, after meeting the staff today they are going back to work, the numbers are encouraging,” he said.
He added that more towns in the area were accepting the prepaid meters, and the Company therefore would complete the exercise in suitable time, adding that he hoped consensus would be reached at the areas that have some misunderstandings for smooth installation.
He stated that there were still a few disturbances on the line, which they were working on, and gave the assurance that they were working hard to ensure customers had a reliable power supply for their livelihood.
The ECG MD said to ensure that those who were yet to allow the installation would embrace it, education and engagement were still ongoing to let the people know what the prepaid metering was about, its efficiency, and how it allowed customers to control their own consumption.
He said the strategy going forward was to disconnect areas that refused the installation of the prepaid meters instead of putting off the power of the entire Krobo enclave.
Mr. Mahama stressed that “the areas that refused us, the network has been dropped and moved away until consensus is reached, it’s not going to be like first that the whole enclave is put out, it’s going to be treated on a town-by-town basis, so we look forward to having a fruitful working condition.”
On the vending stations, Mr. Mahama explained that vending stations were established at the end of installation in an area, therefore, such stations could not be done before installation as the number of meters in an area and customers to be served would have to be considered in setting up the stations.
Answering a question on the use of military officers for the installation, the ECG Managing Director explained that his outfit needed several engineers to ensure the success of the exercise within a certain period, and therefore made effective use of the Military engineers to augment the efforts of ECG engineers.
Mr. Mahama said it was sad that some misunderstanding ensued during the installation.
He added however that even though ECG was not happy about such happenings, they would not take the blame for it as a report on the incident was yet to come out and therefore would prefer to wait and have the proper appraisal of what happened, so management could make the right decision.
He thanked the chiefs and the people of Krobo for allowing them to install the prepaid meters, while appreciating the national security for their efforts in helping them to control situations that came up.
He also urged the media to report accurately on happening at Krobo to ensure they do not inflame passions but promote peace to ensure the smooth completion of the exercise.