The
roll out of a new technology will see electricity consumers in Ghana purchase
and use power like their mobile phone credit recharge system.
The
Ghana Electrometer (GEM) company is partnering the Electricity Company of Ghana
(ECG) to deploy the ‘Smart G pre-paid meters’ in the country.
Under
the project, the ECG would be providing scratch cards that can be bought from
vendors anywhere. This is expected to improve service efficiency and increase
the company’s cash flow.
The
Ashanti-West Region of ECG is piloting the meter installation.
Director
of Operations and External Relations at GEM, Obed Solomon, tells Luv Biz Report
the pilot phase will last between 3-6 months before full project implementation.
“The
numbers we are talking about are quite big and so the pilot will cover about
2,000 meters and the implementation itself should take off first quarter of
2014”, he said.
Under
the full roll out plan, all existing meters are expected to be replaced with the
new Smart G pre-paid meters.
Obed
describes the technology as unique in offering consumers comfort and choice in
the purchase and consumption of power.
According
to him, customers will have more options to purchase power because “you could enter
into a shop or buy by the roadside some credit on the scratch card to load
credit on your meter or you could just send SMS and credit will be transferred straight
to your meter”.
The
project is also expected to create job avenues, especially in merchandising the
scratch cards.
GEM
is the country's only locally based electricity metering company.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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