The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, PURC, has identified major operational and customer service challenges affecting electricity and water delivery across parts of the Ashanti Region following a five-day monitoring exercise.
The exercise involved the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, Ghana Water Limited, GWL, and licensed prepaid vending centres across the region.
The monitoring exercise was led by PURC’s Director of Regional Operations and Consumer Services, Alhaji Jabaru Abubakar, together with Deputy Director for Southern Operations, Leon Acquaye. The inspection covered ECG district offices at Abuakwa, Asokwa, Kwabre and Ayigya, as well as GWL’s West One and West Two districts. Eight licensed prepaid vending centres were also inspected.
According to the Commission, the exercise assessed compliance with PURC regulations, the efficiency of prepaid metering systems, customer service delivery, complaint handling procedures and overall consumer management systems.
The inspection revealed several operational challenges affecting electricity service delivery in the region. PURC reported that frequent power outages at Abuakwa and Asokwa disrupted customer service operations and increased waiting times for consumers.
At Abuakwa, poor road access to the office was identified as a challenge, while Asokwa reportedly faced delays in the supply of meter enclosures for new customer connections.
The commission further observed that the absence of a real-time queue management system at the Kwabre district contributed to long customer waiting periods. The district also recorded increasing cases of illegal electricity connections and meter tampering, resulting in technical and commercial losses to ECG.
PURC additionally noted that system latency was creating congestion at customer service desks.
At Ayigya, the Commission identified delays in the Local Revenue Protection system between October 2025 and January 2026. Customer responsiveness at service desks was also described as below standard due to distractions and non-operational conversations among staff.
The exercise further uncovered challenges with prepaid vending operations. PURC has therefore urged ECG to install standby renewable energy systems, especially solar photovoltaic solutions, at customer service centres to ensure uninterrupted operations during power outages.
The Commission also directed ECG to ensure the regular supply of receipt paper to vending centres and review vendor commission structures to sustain operations and improve accessibility for consumers.
District offices have additionally been advised to introduce real-time queue management systems and strictly enforce customer service charters to improve communication and service delivery.
