Electricity supply has been extended to residents of Green Valley, Kukurantumi and Ananikope; three fast developing communities in the Volta region.
The extension is part of a project, being undertaken by management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to provide power to all non-served and developing communities in the region.
Since the beginning of the year, power has been extended to over three thousand residents in several developing communities in the region, according to the ECG.
The Regional Engineer of ECG, Ing. Bernard Tetteh, expressed optimism that more communities will benefit from this massive drive being undertaken by the company to increase its revenue base.
“As a company, because we are aware of the transformational change that access to electricity brings to individuals and communities, we never shirk our responsibility to ensure that power is available to every potential customer,” he said, adding that, “increased expansion of our networks also means increased opportunity to collect more revenue from consumers.”
In each beneficiary community, Low Voltage (LV) lines and Transformers with adequate capacities to accommodate the demands of the population were provided.
The expansion project coincides with ECG’s ‘System Improvement Project’ (SIP) in the region, which involves the replacement of substandard conductors and rotten wooden poles, as well as increasing the power capacity in areas with over loaded transformers.
The SIP project aims to minimize losses to the company and accomplish reinforcement of the network structures, while providing safe, reliable and quality electricity to its customers.
In Goshen City, a beneficiary community in Ho, the headmistress of Sokode-Lokoe M.A School, Makafui Fiagbe praised ECG for the upgrade in the transformer for the area.
“We were unable to use the computers in our school’s laboratory because the current in the area was always low,” she said.
She expressed hope that with the quality power supply the school and its immediate communities are enjoying from the newly installed transformer, pupils of the school will have better ICT training which will translate into better results in their final exams.
Communities that have also benefitted from the System Improvement Project include Tanyigbe, Leklebi Dafor, Liati Agbonyra, Fodome towns, Sokode Etoe, Akoepe towns and Akrofu Agorve.
Earlier this year, in the month of May, the Electricity Company embarked on a massive house-to-house revenue mobilization drive by management and staff of the company in the region, dubbed “operation pay your bills.”
Scores of defaulting customers in the Volta Region thronged the various cash collecting points to settle their electricity bill arrears.
During the exercise, the Volta Regional Manager of ECG, Ing. Joseph Mensah Forson advised the residents saying, “Customers do not have to wait to be threatened with disconnection of services before they rush to pay bills. We are uncomfortable as a service provider, taking this action but paying bills promptly is what helps the ECG to improve the quality of services to our consumers.”
The revenue mobilization drive is a periodic exercise undertaken by the ECG, to impress on defaulting customers to settle their bills promptly while its staff also takes the opportunity to have one-on-one interactions with customers.
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By Selassie A. Amissah Mensah /citifmonline.com/Ghana