The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has identified over 4,000 substandard and unapproved meters during its zero revenue mobilization exercise.
There are concerns regarding the potential involvement of the private sector in supplying meters, as there is a fear of introducing inefficient meters to customers.
Laila Abubakari, ECG’s communications manager, emphasized the possible dangers associated with allowing private individuals to distribute meters.
“Even though we are trying as much as possible to be open to certain solutions regarding procuring and supplying meters, I wouldn’t say that giving that authority to private people to vend meters is the best solution. We have already found over 4,000 foreign meters in the system, and these meters were allowing people to use power without paying.
“We also know about people who have procured meters and discarded them after the meters have accrued a lot of debt on them. We don’t know if we have honest vendors, and by the time we realize, we might be in very big trouble and won’t be able to revert those.”
Laila Abubakari further highlighted the worry that permitting private individuals or companies to distribute meters might result in the introduction of manipulated and tampered meters into the system.
“The new idea of us relinquishing the procurement and supply of meters to private people is one that might be problematic in the future. The thing about meters is that they can be manipulated, so for us, it is better to know the kinds of meters out there and how they can be manipulated, and how we can correct such manipulations.”