The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has dismissed claims that it is overcharging electricity consumers.
This comes after many prepaid customers complained that their credit balances were decreasing too quickly in recent months.
In February, the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition asked ECG to investigate the issue. Customers raised concerns that their prepaid balances were depleting faster than expected, which led to the directive.
At a press briefing in Accra on April 20, 2026, Acting Managing Director of ECG, Engineer Julius Kpekpena, explained the findings.
He said the company did not deliberately overcharge customers. Instead, he blamed the problem on old meters and outdated tariff settings.
He revealed that some customers still use obsolete meters that operate on old electricity tariffs, in some cases from 2021.
“When we investigated, we realized that some of our old meters, obsolete meters that we are replacing, some of them are on a 2021 tariff. There are several that I have seen that were on the 2021 tariff,” he said.
According to him, the issue becomes clear once ECG updates those meters to the current tariffs. He stated that customers see their prepaid credit run out much faster.
“When the team goes around to update that tariff, immediately that customer is going to see a six times jump in the rate at which the credit is consumed. They think it’s the ECG that is cheating them because the rate has gone up, or we have overcharged them. The truth is that they have underpaid for a long time,” he added.
He explained that many customers had been paying less than the current approved rates without realising it. Once ECG corrects the tariff, the consumption rate increases to reflect the actual cost of electricity.
ECG insists that they have not overbilled any customer. Instead, it says the changes only reflect updated pricing after long-standing system adjustments.
