Prepaid credits costing power consumers a lot – Nene Sakinor

Nene Olepeme Sakinor Nanor I, Chief of Suisi Okuenya in the Manya Krobo Traditional Area and spokesperson of the Manya Krobo Divisional Chiefs has bemoaned what he calls exorbitant prepaid credits that power consumers are being forced to purchase in the Krobo area.

The chief’s concerns arise out of several complaints concerning the high cost of power by some customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) following the acrimonious installation of the prepaid meters in residential and commercial facilities in the Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo communities.

According to some consumers, their consumption had tripled or risen fourfold compared to their bills on the postpaid meters.

Poor earth wiring or general wiring systems has been unofficially blamed for the apparent high consumption in most homes.

Nene Sakinor was one of many outspoken leaders who called for the suspension of the deployment of the meters to the area until adequate education was undertaken and all pending issues between the ECG and its customers had been addressed.

The chief who said a lot of people have issues following the fixing of the meters in their homes said many complaints from users have come to his attention which the power company hasn’t properly explained.

“Some of the complaints that have come to my attention include users who do not get the credit to buy when they run out of credit, some have also been told that their meter is not in the system so they’ll attend to it but do not do so.

The credit is also running faster contrary to the assurances from the ECG, comparing what the people used to pay on the postpaid meters to the prepaid meters, you’ll realize that it’s costing the people a lot,” said the traditional leader.

Nene Sakinor while reiterating earlier reasons for the agitations against the meters said affording the high cost of using the new meters may not be within the reach of most consumers in the area.

He said, “We live in a community that is not an industrial area, it’s a farming community where earning livelihoods is a problem.”

He also cited some statutory charges consumers paid which he said were repeated on every credit purchased in a single month which must not be the case.

According to him, a forum would soon be called for users of the meters to air their grievances.

“At the end of the exercise, we shall meet and those with problems, we shall all meet and discuss them and adopt a strategy to approach the ECG for a resolution of the problems.” Nene Sakinor noted.

He urged the ECG to be up and doing to address the challenges confronting the prepaid users in the area.

The chief who expressed regret at the whole brouhaha prior to and during the metering exercise said leaders of the protests against the exercise discontinued the agitations over the safety of its followers after the deployment of the military to the area.

“We suspended the protests over the prepaid metering system because the safety of our children is important to us and how the ECG used the military to attack, especially Manya Krobo, then we had to go back. We did not go into a war but we wanted to set things right,” he expressed.

The Chief of Suisi Okuenya used the opportunity to extend his sympathies to all those who sustained gunshot wounds and suffered one mishap or the other during the struggle.

He commended the youth for their resilience during the protests, adding that the ECG succeeding in fixing the meters was in no way an indication that the fight had been lost.

The traditional leader urged the ECG to take advantage of the conducive environment they’re enjoying now to educate their customers on the new meters.

He also urged consumers to exercise restraint even in the midst of the rising challenges and approach their leaders with any difficulties arising out of the use of the meters and also challenged community leaders to be proactive in dealing with the matters arising to address them proactively.