Government owes ECG $500 million

Government owes the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) close to US$500 million in bills, the Director of Customer Service, Dr. Nicholas Smart-Yeboah has said.

He said the debt was accumulated over the years, adding that 54% of the money was due to allocation fees in arrears for two years, and the rest is money owed by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Dr. Smart-Yeboah disclosed this exclusively to Adom News after addressing consumers at a program organised by the PURC under the theme “Ensuring quality of service delivery in the Electricity and Water sector”.

Public Relations Officer at the Energy and Petroleum Ministry, Edward Bawa, confirmed his ministry owes ECG, adding that they have made part payment but was not sure exactly how much.

Bawa said government is finding ways to pay the debt, adding that the introduction of prepaid meters system was to curb the accumulation of unpaid bills.

He noted the about 45% of government MDAs are currently on prepaid, and government is working to get the rest onboard to curb debt accumulation.

Bawa used the occasion to urge all MDAs to pay their debts to ECG, and promised that the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum will see to it that the prepaid meters are installed in all government offices to ensure efficient use of power.