ECG inaugurates Adidome, Abor, customer service centres
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has inaugurated two customer service centres at Adidome and Abor in the Volta Region.
The customer service centres will provide vital electricity services such as the payment of electricity bills, reporting of electrical faults, reporting of illegal connections, checking and reconciliation of electricity bills, distribution of customer educational material on ECG’s business, applications for new and separate meter connections and general enquiries about electricity issues to customers.
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Each of the facilities, which has a waiting area for customers, cashier point, customer relations executive (CRE) point, faults reporting point, parking lot for customers, washrooms for customers and a fully equipped security post will serve communities and towns such as Mafi Kumase, New Bakpa, Adidome, Alavanyo, Mafi Sassekope, Mangoase, Sayikope, Koviedze, Aflavenu, Tswala and its environs.
The facilities also have a robust ICT network infrastructure, which will help improve network connectivity to enable customers to access services with ease.
Inaugurating both facilities, the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, said despite the global economic turndown due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, ECG intended to offer customers value and convenient services, therefore the Ministry of Energy (MoE), in collaboration with the Board of Directors and Management of ECG, was keen on sealing all revenue leakages of the company.
Mr Emmanuel Lumor (left), the General Manager of ECG Volta and Oti regions, explaining to Torgbui Dordzeavudzi II (2nd from left), a traditional leader, and other guests how the facilities will operate
Leakages
To seal leakages, a National Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce, assisted by the security agencies, is set to visit customers’ premises and check the integrity of their meters and assess any illegality for immediate redress.
"The 2021-2024 corporate strategy clearly spells out the company’s vision of becoming financially sustainable and customer focused within the next four years and to achieve this aim, the company must work towards the efficient management of resources to break even and become sustainable, in order to retain existing customers and attract prospective ones", he said.
Mr Agyeman-Budu said the ECG was working tirelessly to improve its services to its cherished customers, hence the upgrade of the contact centre for improved services such as SMS and WhatsApp bulk messaging, and the use of local dialects as Interactive Voice Response to educate and sensitise customers.
He also said the ECG had adopted new standards, such as the ECG Mobile App, for online purchasing of electricity units, payment of bills, enquiries, and account management and the ECG Web Portal for digital business transactions and personal management of customers’ accounts to ensure that all ongoing projects create ease in doing business.
The ECG, according to him, introduced a Meter Management System (MMS) with assistance from the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), to enhance metering systems and remotely monitor the meters for overall improved service delivery for customer satisfaction.
That, he said, formed part of the companies resolve to match up to international standards in terms of digitalising its operations to become more efficient.
Illegal connection
Mr Agyeman-Budu lamented that illegal connections reduced the finances of the company and impacted negatively on its ability to invest in the operations of the company, as well as compromised on the quality and reliability of power supply in communities and the electrical network as a whole.
He said persons who did illegal connections posed the threat of fire outbreaks, electrocution, and damage to electrical appliances on the premises of customers, which negatively affected the socio-economic progress of the country.
He reiterated that the ECG would do all in its power to stop illegal connections and bring sanity into the system, build a strong and viable company by offering reliable power supply to Ghanaians and improve the socio-economic development of the country.
He advised customers to apply for meters and go through the necessary procedures to obtain electricity supply services at ECG offices only, so customers would receive utmost satisfaction from the ECG’s services.
"Let us all note that by law, it is only ECG which has the legal right to provide metering and electricity supply services in the southern zone of the country.
No individual or group of persons is expected to do so," he said.
Excellent customer service
The General Manager of ECG Volta/Oti regions, Mr Emmanuel Lumor, said it was the company’s vision to make ECG Volta a hub of excellent customer service.
He noted that this year, the ECG intended to install about 400 transformers in addition to the existing 2,445, to improve power supply in both the Volta and Oti regions, adding that some of the transformers had been installed at Mafi Kumase, Adidome Zongo, Adidome Secondary School and other areas under the Central Tongu District Assembly.
He said the company had allocated 1,474 meters to areas including Mafi Kumase, Mafi Mebiawoe, Mafi Abude, Mafi Akyemfo, Mafi Tsakpo, Mafi Kpogede and other communities under the Central Tongu District.
Extension and system improvement projects which include the intensification of vegetation control activities and the inspection of transformers serving customers to ensure there is a robust distribution network to provide safe, reliable and quality electricity services have also been embarked on.
"This is meant to attract more investors and businesses to create job opportunities for people in the region.
Again, we want to provide a favourable environment for businesses to thrive in the region.
“In view of this, I humbly appeal to everyone to support this vision and furnish the region with suggestions to help make this vision achievable to provide reliable electricity supply," he added.
