Accra, Oct 01, GNA— Despair, disappointment and dejection Saturday characterised the atmosphere at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) district office in Dansoman where scores of people thronged to purchase power.
Customers on the ECG prepayment system have for about a week been unable to purchase power from vendors due technical a challenge.
As a result, the Company directed customers on its prepayment system to visit the various district offices to purchase power.
In a press statement released on Friday, ECG also indicated that it was extending the working hours for the weekend from 0900 to 1600 to ensure that it provided service to many people as possible.
However, some customers who visited the ECG district office in Dansoman were left disappointed because they were unable to do so.
When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the office at 1540 hours on Saturday, it observed that customers who used the remote type of metering system could not top-up.
This, according to information gathered, was due to a network challenge.
Many people were seen around the premises with the hope that the network would be restored in time to enable them to top-up.
Those who could not stay left disappointed.
The GNA also observed the presence of about four uniformed police officers at the premises to maintain law and order.
Mrs Ewurabena Koomson, a disappointed customer, said:
“It’s been almost a week and this challenge has not been addressed. This is incomprehensible. I think we deserve better and ECG must be doing better.
“It is really going to be a long night if we are unable to top-up this evening. I may have to try tomorrow and I hope by then the network challenge would have been resolved. ”
Bernard Neequaye, another customer, said he was disappointed that for almost a week since the challenge began, ECG was yet to rectify it.
“To me, I just don’t understand the problem at hand, which for almost a week cannot be resolved. Is the magnitude of the problem bigger than what they are telling us?
“Beside, don’t they have back ups to address challenges like this?” He asked.
The technical challenge has affected customers in 10 operational regional areas of the ECG in Volta, Kumasi, Accra, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw and Tafo.
In 2017, a similar incident affected more than 30,000 power consumers within four operational areas of the Company, including Kaneshie, Korle-Bu, Dansoman and Achimota.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission in a press release said it was engaging ECG to fix the challenge in time.
Some customers asked the Commission to direct ECG to compensate those affected by the challenge.
GNA