The Minister for Energy, John Jinapor, has revealed that estate developers in Accra found to have connected homes illegally to the national electricity grid will soon face prosecution.
He disclosed this while addressing Parliament on the issue of reducing commercial losses at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Mr Jinapor stated that a recent operation by ECG’s taskforce uncovered multiple homes within the Rehoboth Estate in Accra with illegal electricity connections.
“Recently, you would have heard that some estates have been busted, and we are arranging them before court,” he told Parliament.
The Minister explained that the managers of the affected estates would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as part of the government’s efforts to clamp down on power theft and improve energy accounting.
Providing details of ECG’s ongoing loss reduction reforms, Mr Jinapor said the government was introducing new technologies and systems to curb electricity losses and ensure accurate billing.
“On the loss reduction programme, which is part of the reforms being undertaken by ECG… we’re installing meter management systems, compliant repayment meters, replacing over-aged and faulty meters, and putting in new service connections,” he explained.
He added that about one million smart meters had already been installed under the programme.
“These are smart meters that provide on-the-spot information… ECG is meeting some key performance indicators,” he said.
According to the Minister, Cabinet has also approved a policy requiring all state institutions to be placed on repayment meters or agree to a monthly billing system with ECG. Only the Presidency, Police Service, Military, Education and Health sectors are exempted from the new prepaid meter system, though they are still required to pay for electricity consumed.
“Even with them, they are supposed to pay for the light bills, except that they won’t be on pre-payment meters,” he noted.
Mr Jinapor also disclosed that cartels installing illegal meters without ECG approval will be dealt with severely. He said the Energy Ministry is working on legislation to be submitted to Parliament that would impose stricter penalties on those found culpable.
“Ordinarily, it’s ECG that has the mandate to install meters,” he explained.
“We are working on a legislation… so that the penalty and the penal measures will be quite severe to serve as a deterrent. We’ve been arresting people, we’ve been prosecuting them. In fact, there’s a dedicated court for such offences.”
He also lamented the growing hostility towards ECG and NEDCo staff during enforcement operations. He mentioned an incident in Tamale where officials were attacked during a monitoring exercise.
“Let me also use this opportunity to make a passionate and humble appeal to Ghanaians: if we don’t work with these utilities to recover revenues, we’re going to have a major challenge providing power,” he cautioned.
Turning to the financial challenges facing the sector, the Minister revealed that by June this year, ECG had paid Independent Power Producers (IPPs) an amount equal to what was paid in the entire year of 2024.
“By the middle of the year, we had reached what was paid to IPPs the whole of last year,” he said, explaining that this was part of efforts to stay current with payment arrangements inherited from the previous administration.
He said he had directed ECG to close all its numerous accounts and operate a single monitored account, a move he believes will enhance transparency and oversight by the Ministry, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), and the Energy Commission.
“With that single account, all of us can monitor the amount that comes in. We’ve also directed that they make no payments until the end of the month, so that we can use the cash waterfall mechanism to distribute the revenues.”
Mr Jinapor said the new approach is already showing positive results. He further praised the Finance Ministry’s efforts in stabilising the exchange rate, which has dropped from around 17% to 10.5%. This, he said, has helped reduce energy sector debt in local currency terms by about 30%.
The Minister expressed confidence in the ECG’s current leadership, headed by Engineer Julius Pekwena. He said the new management team is cutting costs, prioritising key expenses, and implementing reforms to slow the pace of debt accumulation.
“They are cutting down on expenditure, realigning expenditure, and prioritising expenditure,” he stated. “And all this ends up reducing the rate of accumulation.”
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