Business News of Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Source: GNA

Ghana Electrometer to embark on educational campaign

Ghana Electrometer (GEM), local manufacturers of credit and pre-paid meters is to start an educational campaign to educate customers on electricity consumption across the country.

This is because there is the need to manage what power is available to ensure optimum use since the consumption levels had a cumulative effect on the amount of power to be distributed.

Mr Obed B. Solomon, Director of Operations and External Relations at GEM made this known during a facility tour and media briefing over the weekend.

Mr Solomon advised customers to employ technical expertise to deal with their metering issues and processes to realise the maximum use of the metres to reduce the amount they pay for electricity.

He said the company is well positioned to provide metering solutions to Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.

He said it would meet the planned target because its ultra-modern metering facility outdoored this year had almost doubled its production capacity of 250,000 meters per year.

Mr Solomon said the new state-of-the-art facility, had helped the company to deliver on its mandate and also improved on its human resource base by creating a lot of job opportunities for the unemployed.

“With the support of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ministry of Energy as our major partners, we want to reiterate our commitment to provide internationally certified metres to facilitate revenue generation and development in the country.

"This is to facilitate the country’s revenue generation, collection and protection efforts,” Mr Solomon said and called for the support of stakeholders including the media to enable it meet the needs of the Governments National Pre-paid Metering Policy.

Since the service has a huge social significance, a lot of support would be required from the public especially from the media to meet the mandate.

GEM has been operating in the country since 2004. As a fully integrated metering solutions provider, the company supports ECG and the Ministry of Energy with locally and internationally-certified electricity meters.

As a company with a vision to become the leader in metering solutions in West Africa, GEM encourages other West African countries to consider the rich benefits Ghana is reaping from the metering services and tap into its valuable resource.

GEM deals in wide range of electricity meters, including electromechanical and electronic; post and pre-paid meters, as well as pre-payment metering solutions.

The service portfolio ranges from pre-meter installation surveys, to installation and after-sale services.

Among other things, GEM has deployed more than 350,000 credit meters and about 440,000 prepayment meters in several communities including Koforidua, Ho, Takoradi, Sekondi, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Kumasi Accra and Tema.