ECG prepaid customers in Krobo area share varying experiences after meter installations

Correspondence from Eastern Region

Customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana in the Lower Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities of the Eastern Region have expressed divergent experiences over the use of prepaid meters.

Backed by the military, most parts of the Krobo area have been successfully rolled onto the new meters by the ECG after several months of hostilities between the power distributors and their customers over the deployment of the meters.

Months after some communities have been rolled onto the new billing system, GhanaWeb interacted with some residents and business operators on their experiences with the meters.

For Georgina Ametepey Ghalley, the meter was installed at her shop in August 2022. A seamstress at Somanya said purchasing Ghc50 worth of credit is always enough to last her for over a month compared to her average monthly bill of Ghc 70 on the postpaid meters. To her, the meter has proven to be a better option as she’s in a position to monitor her consumption.

“My experience so far, the prepaid meter is okay, not like the postpaid. At times the bills that will come are very high at times too they say it’s a network problem so the prepaid is better,” she said. “Because I can check my balance, what I’ve used for the day and everything so I think the prepaid is okay.”

Having used this type of meter before, she had no fears prior to its deployment, contrary to the reservations of most people in the locality.

According to her, she still uses the same items and does not have cause to adjust their usage in any way.

Auntie Victoria Mamle, a waakye (rice and beans) seller and also a resident of Mampong had the meters installed for her some three months ago.

Admitting that she was one of many opponents to the introduction of the new meters, she said her reservations were over buying of credit, adding that her fears were being confirmed.

“We didn’t want it because of the credit you’ll buy,” she said. “If we had the old one, we can get the money to pay for the monthly bills but this one if you don’t have money today and it is finished, you’ll go off.”

Expressing her frustrations over the situation, Auntie Mamle complained that she buys about Ghc200 worth of credit in a month, twice her monthly bill on the postpaid meters. She said, “I think the old one is good because since I got this meter, if I buy the credit like Ghc50, I don’t even get one week and it’s finished so I think the old one is good because with the old one, in a month, I get a bill of between Ghc90 and Ghc100.”

Some customers however believe the ECG is using the new meters to defray its old bills.

Though the power consumer assured the residents that the old bills would not be passed onto the new meters, some of the residents believe the ECG is subtly defraying the existing bills on the old meters with the deduction of what it calls service charges.

According to them, the service charges of about 15% of the amount bought, are deducted with the remaining credit lasting them relatively shorter periods compared with the postpaid meters.

Auntie Doris Odonkor, a fishmonger at Ayikpala, a suburb of Kpong owns three meters in her house. She explained that the service charges being deducted were mere smokescreens behind which the Company hides to deduct the accumulated bills on her meters.

“When the meters were fixed, they were each credited with Ghc10.00. The ten cedis ran out after three days and I bought an additional Ghc100. Out of this Ghc15 was deducted,” she said.

According to her, the charges were explained as processing and maintenance fees, adding that these deductions were repeated when she returned to buy more credit.

The elderly woman furthered that her fears that she would struggle to understand how the meter works due to her poor education were manifest.

Assemblyman for Kpong Ahudzo, honorable Raymond Gborson observed that there was very little difference between the postpaid and prepaid meters.

Estimating his monthly expenses on the prepaid meters compared to the postpaid bills, the Assemblyman said his consumption was around the same amount.

“Using this for a month, I don’t see any difference between this one and the postpaid ones. This one is paying as you go, the only difference is that if you don’t have credit on it, you can’t use it as compared to the postpaid ones that you can use as and when you have money,” he said.

Contrary to complaints of deductions from some consumers, Hon Gborson said he only paid the statutory charges through the deductions whenever he bought credit although he admits he had unpaid bills on the postpaid meters.

To him, the agitations that greeted the proposed installation process stemmed from the low education ahead of the deployment of the meters.

He added that following the instructions on the meter was easy and called for understanding and acceptance by all and sundry.

He noted: “The agitation of people before the installation of the prepaid to me has been that proper and vivid education has not taken place…for years, decades Krobos and for that matter we Ghanaians were used to the postpaid meters.”