EconomyFact Check

Akufo-Addo’s cashless claim about ECG District offices false

Claim: All ECG District offices are now cashless  ̶ Nana Akufo-Addo declares during the State of the Nation address.

Verdict: Investigations at the Ablekuma District and Achimota District Office revealed ongoing cash transactions.

Full Text

Nana Akufo-Addo delivered the state of the nation’s address in parliament on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in fulfilment of article 67 of the constitution of Ghana.

The president, in his address, stated that the Electricity Company of Ghana has embarked on a massive digital transformation to provide effective services to customers. He further stated that, as of March 1, 2023, district offices of the ECG became cashless. 

“I am pleased to announce that, on March 1, 2023, all ECG district offices became cashless. This is a major achievement by all standards,” he told parliament. He added that there had been a twenty-five per cent increase in monthly revenue since the start of the transformational programme.

The video clip starts from  1:20:58 to 1:21:07, as posted on JoyNews on YouTube. Also, find other videos here and here. You can also refer to paragraph 91 of the president’s speech.

Given the importance of electricity and its procurement procedures in Ghana, DUBAWA  decided to verify if district offices have gone cashless as the president claimed. We visited the Ablekuma and Achimota ECG offices to verify.

Verification

According to Britannica, a cashless society or system is one where physical banknotes or coins are not accepted in any financial transaction. Instead, payments are made through debit or credit cards and other electronic mediums. An institution is considered cashless when it employs electronic means in all transactions rather than cash. Find meanings of cashless here, here and here.

To ascertain whether the ECG District offices had gone cashless, DUBAWA  called the general information desk of ECG on March 10, 2023, as a customer who wanted to visit any district office to access its services. As a prospective customer, we asked for payment methods used at the district offices. The customer care person, who gave her name as Victoria, said indeed, ECG has gone cashless but added that some district offices are still using the cash services.

DUBAWA visited the Ablekuma ECG office on Monday, March 13, 2023, to check this.

Image source: Ablekuma ECG District Office

It was observed that clients that trooped into the district office on the busy Monday afternoon mainly came with cash for various transactions. 

“I normally buy online, but today I was close by, so I decided to buy at the office. I paid with cash,” a customer told the researcher, Kofi Adu. 

“I came to pay my bills. I paid in cash,” another client named Nurudeen stated.

“Oh, I came to buy prepaid and paid in cash,” Delali said. 

Image source: Customers waiting to make payments at the Ablekuma ECG District office.

We engaged the Acting District  Manager, Ebenezer Addo, to discover why the office was still taking cash when the president had announced a cashless system. He would not answer except to direct the researcher to the Accra West Regional office. 

However, he confirmed there are cash transactions currently ongoing. 

Also, DUBAWA visited the Achimota ECG District Office on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, to check if the situation differed.

Image source: Achimota ECG District Office.

The situation at the Achimota District Office was not different. Clients purchased prepaid credits and pay bills with cash at the various counters at the office. 

Image source: Cash transactions ongoing at the Achimota ECG office.

The District Manager at the Achimota ECG office could not comment during the visit. Other officials declined to speak to DUBAWA. “I am not in a position to speak on this issue,” the District Human Resource Manager said. 

Conclusion

DUBAWA visits to the two District offices revealed ongoing cash transactions. ECG District Offices are not cashless, as Mr Akufo-Addo claimed during the State of the Nation’s Address, 2023. 

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