It was a Saturday evening around 8:55pm, when Ms Hannah Amankwa, a single mother of four, left her children at home running to go recharge her electricity prepaid meter before the vendor closed.
She has to walk about 400 metres to the vendor shop that will close at 9pm, meaning she had only five minutes to get there or else she would have to sleep in darkness with her children.
She left her children alone in the darkness to walk that far to recharge her meter. However, she was more worried about the queue she could probably go to meet and how long she might stay there.
After announcing her going to her neighbours, one of them asked her, “Why don’t you recharge using the ECG PowerApp?”
With anger in her voice, she replied “they stole me before, one time I recharged my meter using the App and I wasn’t credited even though payment was made and I was deducted.”
She added, “I am not doing that again, I prefer buying from the vendors than using the App, so let me go before they close.”
Similarly, another user of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) App, Mrs Olivia Manyibo, said she faced same challenge multiple times when she used the App to recharge her meter and was left without her money nor the credit.
“The first it happened to me, I run out of meter credit and I decided to recharge it, I don’t remember if that was my first time of using the app or I used it before then, so I entered my details and purchased GH¢50 through my Mobile Money account.”
“It was deducted from my Momo account but I was not credited or nothing showed up on my meter, I checked the App and was notified of a successful transaction, I don’t know what happened,” she recalled.
She added that afterwards, she purchased a couple more, some went through while others suffered same fate.
“I remember after the first incident, I recharged a couple of times, some went through successfully and others too never reflected on my meter, I bought about two or three times and it never reflected,” she said.
Mrs Manyibo stated that, she never reached out to the company for refund or any assistance concerning the failed purchases.
However she said that never deterred her from using the App to recharge her meter, especially with the change of new meters.
She added that, after ECG replaced the old meters with the smart prepaid meters, she has not encountered the problem yet.
A customer of ECG, with meter number 700117893** at Kasoa, Mr Seth Osabukle, said on January 14 this year, he purchased GH¢50 worth of prepaid credit using the ECG PowerApp and despite deducting the money from his mobile money account, his prepaid meter was not credited.
He narrated that his son lodged a complaint through the app and preceded to call ECG customer service, and they were refunded after several hours.
Furthermore, Mr Mark Addo recalled him waking up in darkness around 2 a:m because his prepaid got finished even though he had bought GH¢200 worth of prepaid through the App eight hours earlier.
According to him, when he woke up to investigate the reason for the exhaustion, he realised the prepaid credit he had purchased around 6pm earlier has not reflected on the prepaid meter.
About the App
The ECG PowerApp was launched on February 18, 2020, by the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to allow customers of ECG to purchase electricity and pay bills using their mobile phones.
The mobile application designed in-house by the ICT staff of ECG, according to the company, will make it possible for 2.8 million out of the company’s 3.8 million customers to make payments for power purchased and services rendered by the company.
Users of smartphones can download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, create an account, add the meter number, and top up or pay bills using mobile money wallets. Users of non-smart phones, popularly known as ‘Yam’ phones are not left out; they can dial *226# and follow the prompts to enjoy the service.
The app was developed to tackle two major problems of the company; first, improve on one of its critical functions of delivering power to its customers; and, second, address the more serious challenge of mobilising its revenues from power delivery effectively and efficiently.
According to the former Vice President, the “innovative application will enhance the delivery of an essential public service to all ECG customers – from households, organisations, small businesses and industry.
“This is historic in the sense that the ECG for the first time in its long history is employing technology to tackle two major problems: first, improve on one of its critical functions of delivering power to its customers; and, second, address the more serious challenge of mobilising its revenues from power delivery effectively and efficiently.
With this new application, customers can now buy electricity credit from the comfort of their homes, anytime and anywhere.
According to the Head of External Communication Officer of ECG, Mr Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku, in an interview with The Ghanaian Times, the innovative mobile application was revolutionising the way Ghanaians manage their electricity accounts, enabling cashless transactions, and empowering customers to take control of their energy consumption.
“With a host of features designed to enhance convenience and promote sustainable practices, the ECG PowerApp has become a must-have tool for all ECG customers and the general public,” he said.
Some of the features he noted included, make bill payments with having to visit any ECG offices, real-time energy monitoring, and report issues without having to visit the office or making of phone calls.
Benefits so far
The communication officer stated that, the PowerApp has not only created convenience to ECG customers, it has also increased annual revenue growth for the company.
He added that as at April last year, the new application system had increased its annual revenue growth by 128 per cent as compared to the old system at negative seven per cent, while the PowerApp highest monthly revenue on the current App system is GH¢537.94 million the old system was GH¢30.02 million.
Also, Mr Ayiku stated that the PowerApp average monthly users increased from 80,000 from the old system to 738,000 users in the new system, however, the total users increased from 312,000 to 4,118,0000 users.
Response to concerns raised
Responding to the issues raised, he noted that the issue of purchase and not credited was mostly due to connectivity problems from the telecommunications partners, which mostly result in refunding or a token number being sent to the customer to manually punch into the monitor to get the credit.
“Our smart meters are made automatic, that is if a customer buys prepaid it automatically goes straight onto the meter without him/her having to punch the token numbers even though it will be sent as a text message to your phone and also on your PowerApp, with these smart meters, a customer can be anywhere in the country or world and can purchase prepaid using the application and it will come straight onto the meter.
The non-smart meter which are bought from the middle men (guru boys) cannot serve the same purpose as the smart meters,” he said.
Despite some concerns raised by some users of the PowerApp, other users expressed satisfaction with the services of the App, saying they preferred to use the application to make payments and purchases as it helps them monitor and keep consumption level.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA
The post ECG PowerApp: Convenience marred by technical issues and uncredited payments appeared first on Ghanaian Times.
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