The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has indicated that it will not cancel the debt owed by the residents of Yilo and Manya Krobo districts in the Eastern Region as demanded by the youth.
The Power supply company explaining the issues surrounding the seeming misunderstanding with customers in the Yilo and Manya Krobo insisted that residents legitimately used power between the period under contention and as a result the debt accumulated cannot be cancelled.
“ECG cannot cancel debts for power which has been legitimately consumed and rightly billed”.
ECG
This follows a demonstration by residents on Monday, November 22, 2022 over the accumulated bills. The residents, mainly the youth, demanded a total cancellation of their bills of between 2014 and 2017 and rejected the move to install pre-paid meters.
ECG not installing prepaid meters
In a statement issued by management of the ECG Tema, who have oversight responsibility in the Krobo areas, the Company denied claims that prepaid meters are being installed in those areas ostensibly to punish consumers for events that occured three years ago which resulted in the vandalization of the Company’s office at Somanya.
It then explained that the new billing system was suspended in 2014 because of operational challenges and it was not peculiar to the Krobo areas.
“Neither do we intend to use the prepaid meters as a form of ‘punishment’ for our customers. This problem happened in all ECG operational areas, and not just the Krobo areas. Using the ten regions, it happened in Ashanti, Western, Eastern, Volta, Central, Greater Accra Regions”.
ECG
According to the statement, the issues encountered in the Krobo area were those of non-payment of bills. This, it says, was subsequently rectified with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) also carrying out an independent look into the issue.
“However, some customers in Krobo insists that these investigations have not been done. The bills from 2018 till now have all been correct. There have not been any problems with them. However, as customers chose not to pay these legitimate bills, it has led to an accumulation of debt”.
ECG
The Company assured that it can consent to flexible terms of payment for customers on one-on-one basis but cannot totally cancel the debt.
It will take 5-10 years to pay ECG
The residents of Krobo Land in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region have disclosed it will take them between five to ten years to be able to pay the electricity bills being handed to them by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Youth of Yilo and Manya Krobo communities on Monday November 22, 2021 protested against a move by state power distributor, ECG to introduce prepaid meters in the areas.
The residents have had concerns about wrongful billing, poor investigation into a shooting incident that affected a handful of residents in a violent clash three years ago and ECG’S inconsiderate handling of issues arising.
