The Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr Shafic Suleman, has commended the Electricity Company of Ghana for improved revenue collection in the first quarter of 2025.
The Executive Secretary disclosed this when he visited the Ashanti West Region of ECG as part of his regional tour in the Ashanti Region.
The visit which took place on Friday, 4th April, 2025 saw the Executive Secretary and his entourage from the PURC interact with the Management of ECG Ashanti West Region.
The visit forms part of a broader initiative to familiarise himself with the Commission’s operations nationwide and engage with stakeholders in the utility sector.
Addressing the Management team, Dr. Shafic Suleman expressed his appreciation to them for honoring his invitation with all District and Regional managers present.
The PURC Executive Secretary further underscored the massive strides ECG has made in terms of revenue collection since the beginning of the year with consistent excellent monthly performance and urged ECG to continue to work hard to gather enough revenue to sustain the electricity supply chain.
“Consistently, ECG has collected almost GHC1.4 billion every month since the beginning of the year and that is a step in the right direction to keep the lights on”, he said.
He added that as Chairman of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, he will ensure continuous cash flow to sustain the operations of ECG following recent engagements with the Energy Minister to upgrade the status of ECG on the Cash Waterfall Mechanism.
According to Dr. Suleman, the Commission is trying to change the narrative to ensure a more collaborative approach between the Utilities and the Commission to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship between the Utilities and Customers.
Dr. Suleman indicated that as Executive Secretary of the Commission, he wants to deepen relations with ECG at the regional as well as the district levels.
“The Commission will form a WhatsApp platform to enhance communication with stakeholders like utilities, customers, Regional Minister, reps from the Commission, security agencies among others “, he said.
Dr. Suleman added that “The Commission is also ready to partner with utility companies including ECG to go after recalcitrant customers to ensure the right thing is done”.
Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, Director, Regional Operations & Consumer Services at PURC, appealed to staff to exercise patience when dealing with customers and called on customers to fulfill their responsibilities of paying for electricity consumed to sustain the operations of the utilities.
On his part, Ing. George Amoah, General Manager of Ashanti West Region welcomed the collaborative approach from the Commission and pledged the Region’s support to make the Executive Secretary’s vision a reality.
Ing. Amoah further called for stronger regulations to deter individuals from importing or purchasing meters from any other source except ECG and NEDCO.
“At the moment, the LI 2413 is not punitive enough and does not clearly give ECG the exclusive rights to import meters, so some individuals hide behind this loophole to import fake meters and distribute to customers which increases the losses of the company. We humbly appeal that the PURC collaborates with the Energy Commission to enact stronger regulations to deter individuals from importing meters, punish customers who install such meters at their premises and criminalize illegal connection to help reduce our losses”, he said.
Dr Suleman was accompanied by a delegation, including Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, Director for Regional Operations and Consumer Services; Dr Eric Kofi Obutey, Director for Research and Corporate Affairs; Dr Robert Tia Abdulai Aziz, Head of Corporate Affairs; Mr. Leon Acquaye, Deputy Director responsible for Southern Operations and the Management of PURC Ashanti Region.
