The Director of the Ashanti Region’s Strategic Unit of the ECG, Ing. Joseph Amachi, has disclosed that illegal power connections by post-paid meter subscribers in the region costs the company about 14 percent of its revenue annually.

He, however, declined to give details on the monetary value of the 14 percent loss and the total income of the company per annum.

Ing Amachi made this known when he addressed the media after a quiz competition as part of the safety week celebration by the staff of the ECG in Kumasi.

Messrs Eugene Osae Asamah and Kofi Yeboah of the regional headquarters were adjudged the best in the finals of the quiz competition.

According to Ing Amachi, the percentage of the commercial losses was high as compared to the internationally acceptable standard of two per cent.

To address the challenge, he said the company had replaced more than 75,000 out of the 500,000 post-paid meters in the region with smart prepaid meters that had the capacity to record any attempt at altering the system to steal power.

Ing Amachi said in Ashanti East, the ECG had been able to replace 60,000 post-paid meters with the smart ones and expressed the hope that they would be able to cover the entire region.

In a similar exercise in Kumasi West, the company replaced 15,000 post-paid meters.

“By the middle of next year, the company will have replaced all the post-paid meters,” he stated.

The director said he was hopeful that there would be speedy trial of suspects in power theft cases when they were arrested and brought before the courts.