The Strategic Business Unit of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti Region, recorded the highest illegal connections during the Christmas festivities in Ghana.
In a report issued by the Revenue Protection Unit of the ECG, it stated that the company recorded a loss of revenue and must now put measures in place to recover the money.
The swoop which covered seven regions was carried out during the festive season, from December 21, 2019, to January 7, 2020, within the Southern part of the country.
The main issues found were illegal connections and other anomalies.
The report showed that the Ashanti Strategic Business Unit recorded the highest number of illegalities.
The report recorded 100 illegalities. The Ashanti region recorded 53 out of the total. Followed by Accra East which recorded 18 incidents of illegalities.
The others were Tema, Central, and Western. Accra West did not record any illegality.
General Manager for the Revenue Protection Unit of the ECG, Michael Twum-Barimah Boadu, said they have put measures in place measures to collect money from the culprits.
“A summation of the total charges for the anomalies gives us 1,079,632 kilowatts of electricity that were recovered within just a period of six days that we operated on the field during the holidays. This translates into GH¢1,460,795.79.”
He added that they have also taken some legal actions against defaulters. This includes the imposition of fines and other penalties where necessary.
Mr Twum-Barimah added that “Unannounced visitations will be undertaken at night in hotels, night clubs, pubs, etc. wherever electricity is being used. With the aid of this task force, we are bent on crushing on power theft within this company.”
Meanwhile, the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, is seeking to reduce its losses to power theft by five percent in 2020. The ECG said its annual loss of about 25% is equivalent to US$418.2 million.
This is described as worrying, hence the need for a reduction even if it cannot be eliminated completely.
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