The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has assured Parliament that the shortage of electricity meters in Ghana is being addressed, with additional units expected to reach consumers in the coming weeks.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, March 16, the Minister explained that the shortage was caused by a combination of oversubscribed contracts and funding challenges within the sector.
According to him, when the current administration assumed office, there was already a mismatch between approved funding and the value of contracts awarded for meter supplies.
“When we assumed office in 2024, even though the ECG board approved about three billion cedis for contracts, more than nine billion cedis had already been awarded, including for meter supply,” he said, noting that this created a bottleneck in meter delivery.
The Minister further cited the cash waterfall mechanism—which regulates how revenue collected by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is distributed—as another factor that slowed down the supply of meters.
“It means that the revenue ECG was receiving as a portion of its cash waterfall allocation was not enough. So some of these meter manufacturing companies who had been given huge contracts could not meet that demand,” he explained.
To address the situation, the Ministry has increased ECG’s monthly allocation from GHS 300 million to GHS 360 million. The allocation has also been indexed to a percentage of the utility’s total revenue collection to encourage improved revenue mobilisation.
“If ECG wants to collect more than GHS 360 million, they have to work harder, because the more they collect, the more they get,” he said.
Mr. Jinapor assured the public that meters are now entering the system and that distribution will soon pick up, adding that the government is adopting a strategic approach to ensure efficiency and prevent waste.
“We are on course, and the meters will be made available,” he stated.
