CEO of Independent Power Generators Ghana, Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor
The Independent Power Generators Ghana has opposed the privatisation of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) debt collection and billing services, labeling such moves as wasteful and counter-productive.
As part of President John Dramani Mahama’s first State of the Nation Address, he stated that ECG has accumulated a debt of GH¢68 billion, raising concerns about its financial health and ability to provide reliable electricity services.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor, advocated a nationwide implementation of prepaid meters to enhance ECG revenue mobilization efforts.
He added that ECG should focus on technological investments to address its recurring challenges in real time.
“What we’re saying is that the tariffs should be cost-effective and should enable ECG to recover its most competitive or efficiency cost. We’re not saying that we should support ECG’s inefficiencies; justifiable costs should be recovered through the tariffs. We even proposed that stringent cost measures should be implemented in ECG’s administrative or operational activities. We looked at the issue of technology, we’re way behind technology in the power sector.
“There’s nowhere in the world of people going after customers to come and pay bills, implement pre-paid meters. Automatically, everybody pay for the services. Why waste resources to bring in companies to be going after customers for debt collection? It’s a waste of resources,” he said.
He added that “We talked about technologies that could help ECG monitor the voltage fluctuation in real time.”
SP/AE
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