<<Print>>

Management of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) has sent a strong warning to its customers, especially the category it refers to as Special Load Tariff (SLT), who deliberately issue bounced cheques to desist from the act, as the company will no longer tolerate such habits. The company said the practice is causing the company a lot, because even though on paper they have so much to take care of their expansion needs, but in reality they have nothing, an issue which has become a source of worry to management of the company. Mr. Vincent Commey, acting Tema regional ECG accounts manager touched on the issue at a forum organized by the company to interact with its SLT customers at Tema. The forum was also to inform its special customers on why it has become necessary for the company to increase its tariffs. The SLT customers are a category of clients, mainly made up of heavy and light industrial concerns, who consume huge volumes of electricity. According to Mr. Commey, in April 2013 alone, ECG had GH�486,000.00 worth of bounced cheques, while in May 2013, it recorded GH�525,000.00 bounced cheques; in June 2013 it was GH�625,000.00 and in July 2013 it went up further to GH�685,000.00. Mr. Commey explained that it is worrying that the figures increase on a monthly basis and that the company has decided to slap fines on offending companies which would issue bounced cheques from next month. Mr. Commey warned that, henceforth, companies which would issue bounced cheques up to GH�2,000.00 would attract a fine of GH�50.00 on the value of the said cheque and any amount above GH�2,000.00 would attract 10% of the value of the cheque. Addressing the SLT customers, Mark Asomani-Wiafe, acting Regional General Manager of ECG, Tema region, said even though the SLT customers form less than one percent of its customer base, they contribute about 80% of its total revenue. Mr. Asomani-Wiafe noted that his outfit needs about $200 million annually for the next five years to be able to keep pace with the current growing demand of electricity in the country. �To address the issue of suppressed demand or curtailment of customer consumption, and provide a medium for extension of power supply to new communities and potential customer, ECG requires about USD 200million every year for the next 5 years to keep pace with the current level of electricity demand growth�, he explained. He continued: �The level of electricity demand growth in Ghana is very enormous. Growing at 10% year on year, it is required that ECG expands its high, medium and low voltage networks on a continuous basis to enable the company meet the demand of its customers. �Today, the company�s ability to rapidly expand its distribution network is hampered because of its inability to self-finance major network investment projects. These are the reasons why the company is requesting for an urgent review of electricity rates�, he observed.