Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), James Klutse Avedzi, has claimed that power theft accounted for 30% of the revenue losses of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
He mentioned that if this problem of power theft is rectified, the power distribution company will become a profit-making one.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues on Sunday, May 5, 2024, Mr. Avedzi said, “If ECG is able to focus on rectifying the theft of power, which accounts for 30 percent of revenue losses, they can return to profit-making.”
His comment comes on the back of the Auditor-General’s report highlighting the revenue losses of ECG.
Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, in an appearance before PAC in February this year said the depreciation of the local currency was taking a toll on their business.
He explained that the power distribution company mostly buys electricity in dollars and sells in Cedi; therefore, the depreciation of the Cedi against major trading currencies, especially the dollar, was causing more
harm than good to his outfit.
“The forex losses alone for the year are something that we have to look at in terms of our business. Forex losses are what culminate in over 80 percent of the losses that you are seeing. ECG sells electricity, so we will do our best to sell enough to reduce our commercial losses to the best of our ability to see how we can close that gap,” Mahama earlier stated.
In March this year, ECG embarked on a nationwide revenue mobilization exercise.
The ECG boss stated that the revenue mobilization exercise carried out by his outfit was backed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s LI 2413(2020).
This L.I. empowered ECG to access all its installations at any point in time.
Meanwhile, ECG’s collection losses as of September 2023 increased to GHS2,050,373,143.47.
Collection loss is the income that is not received due to non-payment, delinquency, or bad debt from tenants or customers.
On technical loss, the company recorded a loss of GHS1,279,369,021.42 as against GHS2,758,87
2,792.21 in 2022.
Source: Ghana Web