Dec 23, 2012 at 1:47am

In today’s era of quality, innovative “made in Ghana” goods and services, many of us still hold foreign-based products and companies in high esteem while granting only a cursory glance to our homegrown success stories.

Thankfully, international trends are beginning to turn and local content development is gaining the prominence it deserves as part of major policy initiatives in both developed and developing countries.

In Ghana, the recognition of the importance of local businesses to the country’s economic growth has led to the development of a local content and participation policy. This policy aims at maximizing the level of usage of local goods and services, expertise, and businesses for national development.

In view of this initiative, many local businesses are being encouraged by the state to help contribute to national development. One of these local initiatives is Ghana Electrometer.

Ghana Electrometer (GEM) is a private local company that is providing quality credit and pre-paid meters to the country through the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

The company is a partner of Elsewedy Electrometer, Egypt, a market leader in metering supports GEM’s engineers and technicians where technical capacity building is concerned.

GEM has a state-of-the art metering facility, which is currently the only one in the country and one of only two in the entire West African sub-region.

As an indigenous Ghanaian company, GEM offers employment opportunities for many Ghanaians, particularly engineering and information technology (IT) graduates from Ghana’s universities and technical institutions. Currently, over 300 people are being employed by GEM directly and indirectly.

Indeed, the contributions of local companies such as Ghana Electrometer are undoubtedly helping the nation to address the challenge of graduate unemployment.

For graduates of electrical and electronic programmes, the establishment of GEM is a blessing since the company offers them the opportunity to work directly in their chosen field of study.

As a company that aims at establishing itself as the preferred metering solutions provider, not only in Ghana but also in West Africa, Ghana Electrometer is positioning itself to accomplish its goal through constant investment in its staff and infrastructure.

The company’s dedication to its goal of meeting the metering demand of Ghana and that of other West African countries can be seen in the huge investment that it is making in modern metering facilities.

Customer sensitivity is essential to every organization’s success and that is why GEM continues to complement the ECG’s efforts to educate customers on pre-paid meters.

This the company does through constant engagement with its stakeholders. GEM recently organized a facility tour as part of efforts to educate the media on pre-paid meters. It was a fruitful interaction session as the media toured the company’s ultra-modern facility and broadened their understanding of metering.

The experience was a unique one since the GEM metering facility is currently the only one in the country. The knowledge acquired by the media has equipped them to educate customers on issues relating to pre-paid meters.

The benefits of using pre-paid meters are numerous and this is why Ghana Electrometer strives to continually invest in the quality of its products so that consumers can accrue maximum benefit. Pre-paid meters serve as tools that allow customers to control their power consumption, preventing them from unknowingly incurring high electricity bills.

At the same time, GEM’s commitment to facilitating revenue generation, collection and protection with its international standard meters helps the nation generate revenue to support its developmental projects.

As the demand for ECG to connect homes and businesses to the national power grid increases, so is the need for capital to support this expansion. Ghana Electrometer considers its commitment to supporting the country’s revenue generation efforts a clear demonstration of the value of local content.

The support of the company’s stakeholders such as the Ministry of Energy and the Electricity Company of Ghana is contributing significantly to GEM’s success story today, a story that illustrates the critical value of local content to the nation.

For GEM, local content development would not be possible without public-private partnership. The country’s support for local businesses is therefore a necessary tool for development.