The Accra West Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has since January 2018 retrieved GH¢ 4,032,855.00 from 777 customers who illegally used power without paying.

Some of the illegalities the customers engaged in included meter by-pass, direct connection, meter tampering and unauthorised service connection.

The Accra West Regional General Manager of ECG, Engineer George Appiah-Kubi, disclosed that the monies were retrieved as a result of a massive revenue protection campaign launched earlier this year to rid the system of power theft, which deprives the company of revenue.

“We have formed a special revenue protection task force whose duty is to visit meters installed in the region and audit the authenticity of the electricity connection in those facilities. The result of the consistent monitoring by the task force is the retrieval of monies, which the company would otherwise have lost,” he disclosed.

Ing. Appiah-Kubi bemoaned the negative effects of power theft on the company’s operation, highlighting that aside from impeding prompt payment to power producers for the power sold to ECG, the loss of revenue through theft constrains the company from regularly undertaking system improvement and expansion projects.

The Accra West Revenue Protection Manager, Ebenezer Yao Fiador, appealed to the public to volunteer information on illegal activities.

He promised that the identity of persons who provide credible information would be protected, and same persons would be paid a percentage of any amount recovered.

Mr. Fiador gave an assurance that the revenue protection exercise would be intensified and institutionalised to achieve zero per cent power theft in the region.

“We are collaborating with the security agencies and constantly revising our revenue protection tactics to stay ahead of the criminals,” he said.

The total amount of GH¢4,032,855.00 represents the cost of 3,801.726 kilowatts hour (kWh) of electricity stolen by the 777 customers. The Accra West Region of ECG has seven operational districts, which include Kaneshie, Korle-Bu, Dansoman, Ablekuma, Nsawam, Bortianor and Achimota.