My Rollercoaster Journey with ECG: From Lost Cards to Smart Meters and Finally, Power! Part 2

If you have not read Part 1, check it out and come and continue. Let’s go back to that fateful Friday night. Me, I had planned to go out and chill because I suspected I would not have electricity. So I went out, chilled with a chilled Orijin in tow. The next day, Saturday, we had an #AccraKonnect Meetup at Barcelos, Accra Mall. I had another Orijin, finishing my quota for January in 2 days, thanks to the bulk of spending the month in Yankee. At the meetup on goal setting for 2026, I bought a book from Dreamlite Books and was given a number of books to be handed to Bright on Monday.

So on that bright Monday, February 2, 2026, I headed to the ECG office in Amrahia once again. I was wearing a tshirt branded with Ashesi, Mastercard Foundation & McGill. I had to wait for an important Monday meeting there to finish. I got to speak to Bright’s boss in the Mappers & Estimators room (213). Moses had reported to him that the relay on the old meter was faulty—”opening and closing like it had a mind of its own”. They checked on the electrical appliances, etc in the house and I confirmed what was there and what I use. I made it clear that the bill was not commensurate with what I use. I asked them to look at my recent purchases from the end of 2023. The report confirmed my ¢300 purchases which normally lasted 4-6 weeks. They estimated my bill at around ¢440 per month for what I use, and said I use an AC, that alone could cost ¢600. Ouch. Breathe. 

Good News Chapter 25, verse 7 followed. “You have approved for a new smart meter and you should be getting it tomorrow morning”. Amandla!!!! There is no bad news tied to this. Good News Chapter 25, verse 14: “You are not paying anything for the temporary supply, as you did not use much electricity anyway, and you were only connected on Friday”. That brightened up my day. Good News Chapter 25, verse 23: “The smart meter is free!” That lightened up every part of my body and soul. Goal!

They called one of the ECG contractors to prepare to install the new meter for me, a 3-phase smart meter replacement. God Can Do! The next morning, I waited for this contractor (GCD) to come and install this, so I could go to work. He came and installed it with ¢100 credit preloaded. He said his work was done. The new meter looked nice, with a device to manage it. Bravo ECG!

I tried to buy credit through expressPay but I kept getting an error, “Meter not found”. GCD mentioned that I needed to wait some time before buying more credit via authorized apps - I needed to first purchase from a vendor, physically, at their store, before I could buy online. Going to a vendor physically to buy is what I have been trying to not do for years, after enjoying that where we lived in Oyarifa till 2019. He taught me that to check the balance, I needed to punch in 007 on the device. I decided to wait more than 2.33 hours for this vendor visit. If you don’t know why, “wontelle wo anaa de wonblow wo?”

The next morning, I went to a nearby ECG vendor to buy more credit. The vendor said my meter was not commissioned or registered. Argh? I called GCD who said he needed to call someone else to get that done. I did not give him any money when he came to install the meter. I was not supposed to. But he reminded me that I did not. Ahem. Since I had ¢100 credit which was not finishing soon, I waited and called him on February 7 for an update.

1 week to Valentine’s Day, the meter was commissioned, ready to load up. I reached out to the same ECG vendor via Whatsapp for credit purchasing because she had said I could do it. I shared the meter number. She came back saying it was the wrong one, so I shared another number on the card ECG gave me. Voila! That worked. I paid ¢300 via expressPay, to cover the ¢100 that came with the meter and ¢200 extra.

When we used to buy ECG for our smart meter in the Oyarifa house, expressPay did not have the ECG payment option. I had been waiting since Covid to use this service. So that same February 7, I tried. This time, my meter ID was found. Can you guess how much credit I bought? You’re in the spirit. ¢233! The notification from expressPay was instant. I expected my meter to also reflect the new credit, the same way expressPay does this with DSTV (and my TV starts showing in seconds). Well, not ECG. I kept waiting and waiting. Later that day, I received a message from expressPay, saying “A recharge request of GHs 233.00 to meter XXXXXXXXXXX (ECG Prepaid) has been processed successfully. Use this token (20 digit number) to recharge your meter. Txn ID: 11 alphanumeric characters. I did not take any action with this message.

In the ensuing days, I checked the credit balance on the device, and what I had bought was not showing. On February 11, I called expressPay, which has some of the best customer service or customer experience folks in the country. Nana helped me understand the token system and then it dawned on me that I had needed to act to have the credit reflected in the meter so I could use it. I called the ECG hotline, which is . I have called them countless times in the past when our lights were off, to ask: “Light off, when would the light come back?” “Why do we have light off and some folks down the street have light?” I have a whole history with these folks, at least they know I am calling when they pick it up, and where I am based. I had to make them do that.

One Edmund picked up this time after I had to listen to ECG say they are more cashless now. He walked me through loading the token. For all of ECG’s faults, their customer service reps are really good. It’s just sad that they do not arm them with enough information to help (frustrated) customers. Apparently, when the power (credit) is purchased, the systems should allow communication with the smart meter which has a SIM card, loading the credit. But due to network issues (how many times do you still hear that #inGhana, in 2026?), it sometimes does not work, and then a token has to be sent (later). Folks, we cannot continue this way. Others build systems with little to no network issues.

I inputted the token for the ¢233 payment via expressPay, and the credit reflected. Hallelujah! After all this, I had ¢275 worth. The next day, I realized that the extra credit I bought directly with the vendor had not been loaded then. I took a closer look at the receipt they sent on Whatsapp and found the token number. I inputted that one too. I would be checking to see how much the ¢460 left lasts, with how I use the electricity. I do not want to have to be loading token numbers. ECG, now I am talking to you. Fix this please.

This whole ordeal taught me a few things:

• Keep your meter details handy: Snap photos of your meter ID, account number, and GPS code. I lost time digging through old receipts.

• Find a way to get a smart meter: They're supposed to be the now—easier top-ups via apps like expressPay or MoMo.

• Patience is key, as well as persistence: ECG folks like Moses, Kofi, Bright, Amin, and the vendor were helpful, but processes take some time. Shoutout to them!

• Budget for surprises and incidentals: Many would couch this as “Ghana we dey”.

• Apps and tokens: Read everything closely. Learn and document the processes. 

I knew I was going to blog about this the minute I lost the card. So I started documenting what was happening and taking photos and screenshots. Learn this more ai? Say “AI”. Any bad or good ECG stories? Drop them in the comments.