An initiative to improve quality service delivery for customers and enhanced revenue collection for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has been launched in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital.
The initiative, dubbed "Spot Billing and Franchising Project", which was on the theme: "Safeguarding Revenue, Powering Ghana", was intended to improve billing accuracy of customers, strengthen revenue collection and enhance customer service delivery of the ECG across the country.
It is also to address illegal connections and respond to growing customer demands for better service and the need for greater efficiency, accountability and profitability.
At a ceremony to officially launch the initiative at the Eastern Regional Office of the ECG in Koforidua last Thursday, the Managing Director of the company, Julius Kwame Kpekpena, said the franchise initiative was intended to bring ECG services more closer to the customer than before, and that it would make the field operations more efficient, transparent and accountable.
The event brought together the management, board, workers of ECG, franchise contractors, representatives from the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Polymorph labs and Hubtel, technology partners, assembly members and, traditional rulers, led by the Oyokohene and Adontenhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Nana Sempe Osei Bonsu II
Wrong meter reading
Such a change, Mr Kpekpena stated, had become very important because many of the problems that customers were experiencing started right in the field, and that inaccurate or missed or wrong meter reading could lead to a wrong bill.
"We are changing the way ECG manages its relationship with customers in the field. For many years, our contract meter readers had a fairly simple responsibility: visit the customer and read the meter. Under the franchise initiative, that role has been expanded significantly.
"The franchise contractor is now expected not only to read meters, but also to support bill delivery, monitor prepayment meters, identify and report faulty meters and illegal connections, support authorised disconnections and reconnections, validate customer information, and generally serve as an important link between ECG and the customer", Mr Kpekpena told the gathering.
He stated that a faulty meter that remained unattended had the tendency to create inconvenience for the customer, and revenue loss for ECG, adding that an illegal connection placed an unfair burden on customers who paid honestly for the electricity they consumed.
Better visibility
Such a move by the ECG had given the company stronger field presence and better visibility over the company’s commercial operations which would help the ECG to improve meter reading and billing, identify faulty and unauthorised meters early, strengthen revenue collection and reduce commercial losses.
Such an initiative, Mr Kpekpena stated, had also given the management a better basis for monitoring performance, and holding the franchise contractors more accountable for the work entrusted to them.
Participants in Koforidua
For customers and the general public, Mr Kpekpena further stressed that such an initiative should mean better and more responsive service, and that should mean more accurate meter readings, quicker identification of problems, and easier verification of the people who came to the premises on behalf of ECG.
Shortfall
The acting Deputy Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission of Ghana, Dr Julius Abayateye, who read the speech on behalf of the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, stated that every unit of electricity generated came at a cost, and that the revenue shortfall within the electricity value chain could limit the resources available for infrastructure maintenance, network expansion, improved service delivery and investments needed to meet Ghana’s growing electricity demand.
"When electricity is consumed but not properly measured, billed or paid for, the resulting revenue shortfalls affect the entire electricity value chain", Mr Jinapor indicated.
Overall overview
Giving the overall overview of the initiative, the Deputy Commercial Manager of ECG, Ebenezer Baiden, said 1,500 franchise contractors had been given specialised skills training before engaging customers effectively and efficiently to read meters, printing and delivering of bills, checking of illegal connections and managing of customer debt and payment.
That, he pointed out, would improve the company’s revenue collection, and therefore, pledged ECG's support to work effectively with the franchise contractors to ensure that the company improved its revenue collection.
To ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the initiative, the ECG presented two new Toyota Land Cruisers and 10 new motorbikes to facilitate the work of the franchise contractors.
Writer's email:
