The Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, says it should complete the configuration of a few more prepaid meters to reflect the relief packages announced for electricity consumers by the end of this week.
The ECG deferred the implementation of a three-month relief package for pre-paid consumers of electricity; from April to May, to allow it reconfigure its systems.
Per the relief, all lifeline consumers will get a one hundred percent waiver for electricity consumed for three months; while other consumers will get a fifty percent reduction in tariff as part of measures to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 in Ghana.
Public Relations Officer for the ECG at Accra West, Fred Baimbill Johnson, told Citi Business News all consumers will enjoy the benefits as outlined.
“Since the first of May as announced earlier, we have started the implementation of the relief as announced by the President. Now with the roll out of the relief we have realized that there are some challenges in the system as earlier mentioned. For some customers, what we realized is that some were not able to swipe their cards or insert their cards properly before visiting our various checkpoints. So, we are not able to pick the March consumption rate of these customers to be able to give them the relief they deserve.”
“Also, we have some meters which are on pilot. A few of them are really slow and so we are giving ourselves some time till the end of this week to be able to evaluate all of these so that the customers will have the relief they deserve. But in all about 90% of our customers have received the relief they deserve and so far we think everything is going on well,” he noted.
Gov’t to absorb electricity bills
In the wake of the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country, President Akufo-Addo on April 9, 2020, announced that Government will fully cover the bills of low-income consumers of electricity in the country for April, May and June, as part of measures to bring relief to Ghanaians.
According to him, other consumers who fall outside of this class will also enjoy a 50 percent reduction in the cost of electricity for the same period.
