ECG: 10 million Ghanaians involved in illegal connections

• Posted on April 29, 2014April 29, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says more than 10 million Ghanaians have illegally connected electricity to their homes or businesses.

ECG’s Public Relations Officer, William Boateng, told XYZ Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu on Tuesday that, “For the past three years, we are talking about almost 10 million,” people engaged in “various illegal connections”.

Mr. Boateng said the illegal connections include bypassing the power distribution system, as well as tampering with the electricity meters among a raft of other means.

According to him, the situation causes the power distributor to lose a lot of revenue since those enjoying the illegal power supply will consistently not pay for their consumption.

A similar situation persists in the water supply system. About six years ago, the Director of the Ghana Water Company Ltd told the GNA that only about 400,000 Ghanaians nationwide pay water tariffs.

In Mr. Botwe’s estimation, the number is deplorably inadequate. Per his projections, even if the population of Greater Accra alone was three million with an average of five people living in a house, then about 600,000 housing units could be identified to pay water tariffs in that region alone.

-xyz