ECG refers 1,047 defaulters for prosecution

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says it has referred 1,047 customers found to have engaged in power theft between 2019 and 2021 to its Legal Directorate for prosecution.

In March, news reports indicated that many entities, including government institutions such as Parliament, UNFPA, and Ministry of Finance, were indebted to the company running in the thousands of cedis. 

The company is said to lose $ 400 million or more to power theft. Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, told reporters at a press conference in April.  

“That ECG loss is our inability to pay or our willingness to pay our power theft,” he is quoted to have said at the time. 

The company says in addition to the power theft, it also had to deal with the theft of copper from distribution transformers, utility poles, transformer oil from energised transformers, underground cables, overhead conductors, and others.

It, therefore, says in the meantime, it is working with scrap dealers and law enforcement officials; fencing, warnings signs, adequate lighting of installations, patrolling and intrusion detection for deterrence and the expansion of the Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to remotely monitor the loads and consumption of high consuming Non-Special Load Tariff (NSLT) for early detection of theft.