The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has hinted it is considering jail terms for customers who access power illegally, engage in meter bypassing, power theft and other forms of illegalities.
A Director at the Company, Dr. George Yaw Marfo told Joy Business this has become necessary following a trend they identified in Tema Region during the one-month revenue mobilisation exercise which ended in April 2023.
“When we embarked on the exercise, some of the major challenges we came across were meter bypass and illegal connections, power theft.
“If you have gotten yourself involved in that please report to the engineers at any ECG district office to rectify it”.
“The next step after the revenue mobilisation exercise is to come after those people, so please resist illegal connections. It’s your duty to pay your bills,” he continued.
According to Ing. Dr. Marfo who was one of the lead for Tema Region during the revenue mobilisation exercise, neighbouring countries make it unattractive for people to steal power and customers pay promptly.
ECG is expected to lobby parliament to enact laws to punish culprits.
“If we are able to lobby parliament to enact severe laws, it will help prevent that. I think a few months’ imprisonments will help. We all need to contribute to the good of Mother Ghana,” he advised.
Tema Region alone during the month-long nationwide exercise had a target of about ¢600 million of debt to recover.
Over the years, illegal connections and other offences have been considered some of the major challenges hampering the efficiency of the power distributor.p
