The Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG is attempting to criminalise skipping payments of electricity bills. The state power distributor is currently lobbying the Ghanaian Parliament to pass a law to facilitate the m
There are over 85 % of Ghanaians with access to electricity, however, a sizeable number of this demography reportedly refuse to pay bills through all sorts of escape tactics such as illegal connections and collusion with workers of the company.
Government offices and agencies are also notorious culprits within this bracket of clients who owe the ECG huge unpaid bills.
The ECG has no law backing it to prosecute consumers who fail to pay bills while it haemorrhage under debt.
“So we are now lobbying Parliament to pass a Law, making nonpayment of electricity a crime as it’s happening in Francophone countries. In Ivory Coast, you dare not renege on your responsibility to pay bills. if you do that they will arrest you. When you go to Togo the same thing, if you don’t pay electricity they will arrest and you will pay penalty and interest. We are lobbying parliament to pass a similar law,” At the Eastern Regional Manager of ECG, Ing Michael Baah explained during the annual media encounter in Koforidua.