The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), will soon commence the sale of prepaid electricity credit online through its yet-to-be launched mobile application.
The Managing Director of the company, Samuel Appiah, who said this at a news conference, said the project will be piloted before being rolled out officially for public use.
[contextly_sidebar id=”HYXrzUmyj8YvS1BBfZIzMzxvjavMyLRa”]According to him, the technology will help avoid a recurrence of the current troubles the company is having with some of its prepared systems in the country.
“Going forward, the company intends to ensure that all ECG payment metering system will be smart devoid of customers visiting vending points, but instead utilizing a mobile application to purchase credit online,” he said.
He added that “some of our customers on credit meters can also receive their bills and pay their bills through the mobile application.”
Over 30,000 ECG customers in some parts of Accra have been without power for days following what the ECG calls a technical hitch.
In the past two days, hundreds of ECG customers converged on the company’s office at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, in a desperate attempt to purchase unit.
This has again brought to the fore discussions about the limited application of technology in service delivery in some state agencies, leading to tiresome and ineffective service delivery.
The ECG, which is a major utility company in the country, serves millions of customers in the Southern part of the country.
The company, however, still performs some of its operations manually.
Issuing and payment of bills is done manually, while customers with technical problems are expected to queue at its district officers to have their complaints heard and resolved.
But Mr. Appiah believes that the decision to introduce the official mobile app, will help address these challenges.
ECG privatization
This is happening at a time when the government is preparing to cede 50% of the company to a private investor for some 20 years, as part of the Millennium Compact II agreement with the US government.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana