Krobo blackout: Residents pay GHC5 to charge smartphones

Residents of Manya and Yilo Krobo in the Eastern Region have to pay between GHS2 and GHS5 to charge their mobile phones daily.

This follows the recent total power outage being experienced within the Manya and Yilo Krobo communities.

The power outage has stretched on for four days, affecting businesses in both communities.

Frozen food sellers, barbers, guest houses, among others, have been affected.

As a consequence, people are compelled to pay generator set operators between GHS2 (for non-smartphones) and GHS5 (for smartphones) to charge their phones.

Speaking to CTV's Ahmed Kamal on Thursday, 9 December 2021, a resident of Yilo Krobo, Mr Simon Opambour, said: “Some shops using generators for their business are charging GHS2 and GHS5 when people go to charge their phones.”

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recently said the total power outage being experienced within the Krobo area is due to the activities of “unscrupulous persons” which caused overloading on some transformers and destroyed several others within the various communities.

The ECG made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday, 7 December 2021.

According to the ECG, its investigations have established that the current outage is “due to the activities of unscrupulous persons who transferred customers from a transformer with a phase-off problem to adjacent transformers, thereby overloading them and destroying several transformers within the communities.”

The “total illegal hijack of our network is unacceptable,” the company noted.

The statement continued that the company has decided to “shut down the feeders at the Bulk Supply Point (BSP) directly feeding the communities in order to protect” its network, “lives and properties of innocent customers and the general public” within the Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo communities.

This, the company noted, is a result of the reduction in its operations within the Krobo area, which was necessitated by the threat to its staff.

“Affected customers should please note that ECG is engaging traditional authorities to find a lasting solution to address the various issues particularly the insecurity which does not permit us to operate in the district office at Somanya,” the statement added.

ECG recently shut down its office in Somanya in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region due to safety concerns.

This was announced by the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyemang, on Monday, 6 December 2021, at a press conference in Tema.

The office, which was shut down on Wednesday, 1 December 2021, has been relocated to Juapong in the Volta Region.

The new ECG office is expected to serve seven districts including Lower Manya Krobo, Asuogyaman, Ho West, North Tongu, Shai Osudoku, Okere and Yilo Krobo.

According to the Managing Director, the district office was shut down to protect the lives of the workers of the state power distributor.

Power is yet to be restored to the area.