How did I not know this?
So the past few days my power had finished and I’ve been meaning to go to the VRA(Volta River Authority) to load up. For those who don’t know, the VRA is basically light the company in charge of electricity and power stuff here.
I learnt something very new today over there and it kinda pissed me off I had to learn it today. I called up a delivery service to take me to town to handle some extra stuff and getting the power was the last thing on the list.
What I’m about to say might not make a lot of sense to you if you’re not Ghana or Africa. Okay so here goes…
You know how when you buy power (credit), you get some bonus as “reserve”? If you said yes or nodded your head in agreement, welcome to the group that learnt it actually doesn’t work that way today.
The VRA attendant told me the “reserve” credit we use after we run out of credit is not actually bonus that was given to you, but is a debt or loan credit you took. So something like taking a mobile money loan like Qwik Loan.
It was a long conversation trying to explain to an agent that’s not how it works. Yeah, me who doesn’t work there, trying to tell the professional how their job works. Lol fucking right.
I was honestly embarrassed I didn’t know about this all this time. I’ve gone to the VRA more times than I can count to buy prepaid and if I had just taken the time to properly look at the numbers on the prepaid receipt, I would understand this logistics.
This new lesson is just one part of the post. Why she was telling me about this was because apparently I had some "debt" on my card (which I didn’t know was debt until right about today) and I swore everything I didn’t. Eventually after she was done explaining everything, it turns out I need to pay a GHC28 service fee before I could even buy prepaid. Funny thing is that I brought GHC30 to buy my prepaid. So in essence, I only had enough money to pay off my service fee and go back home with no credit. Seeing as that was already my last coin, I told her I’d come back another time and left with my GHC30.
According to her, after paying this “service fee”, I would need to buy credit worth not less than 50cedis to be good, because the debt on my loan would equal close to 20cedis. Meaning I get only 30cedis credit myself.
Most of this stuff was pretty confusing to me, but I managed to make meaning out of some bits of it. Not sure whether everyone else knew this and I was the only moron, but my delivery guy said he knew about it when I asked it and it made me feel more stupid than I already seemed.
So yeah, this was the lesson for today. Did you already know these things or are you just finding out now too?
All images here are mine
Hmmm 🤔, the issue of VRA and power supply in Ghana has been something causing a lot of problem. This isn't only those who use the prepaid card but also the Digital one too. Sometimes when they make mistakes and you go there to resolve, they wouldn't want to address it.
Yhp. Ghana is a very interesting country.
So all this while you didn’t know the reserve was a loan.😅
Those people are cheats. The last time they asked me to pay 24gh as service charge for buying light the second time in the month.
Just last weekend I was talking to someone about it and they said it wasn’t true and that they were just trying to cheat me.
Yeah like why do I have to pay extra to buy power for the second time in a month. The VRA agent was telling me the same thing too. Something about “they were expecting me to use the power through out the month, but since I finished it before the month ended, I had to pay extra or something. It’s all just confusing, seriously.
Oh😂😂😂
When I just started reading, I knew where this was going😂😂😂
I don’t know about this service fee thing though.
Why would they take service fee and still take the loan again?
Lol you need to ask about it the next time you go to buy power. Maybe your agent will give you a better explanation than mine did. Good to know what’s up before you have to find out when you’re in a shitty spot like me. Lol
I'm looking at this as if it would be all Chinese. Good thing we don't have this system here, but I understand why they have it still over there.
I am finding out now that power is on credit 😳😳😳
Haha I can understand why it might sound gibberish to you.
I’ve read a couple things about systems else where and couldn’t quite grasp what was been narrated.
But yeah…they give us power on credit here. Basically when you run out of power on your card, you can just slot it back in and you’ll automatically be given power on credit to last you maybe a couple of days until you can go to the office to buy some. The thing is just that, many people considered (myself included) that as a sort of a bonus.
In most of the countries you have power and pay the bill later. If you don't pay, you have your power cut off. Simple as that.
It used to be like that here. But now we have two options: pay for the power before you get it (this case is called a prepaid subscription) or they give you power for a month and your usage at the end of the month is calculated and you pay monthly(this case is called postpaid subscription). People had this belief that the postpaid subscription charges were being inflated by the VRA themselves, so most people here use prepaid now.
Interesting. Or strange? 😳 Dunno but good to know.
Wait. You don’t have the option of paying upfront for power over there?
I don't think so, I've never heard of such thing. You have different packages here, different options, based on how much you think you're consuming, so the price varies too.
That system you have was used here between the two world wars and it's possible the prepaid system is still on in the UK, but other than that, I doubt it. Wherever I've been in Europe, have not seen it.
So if I get you right, you can’t really tell the power company how much power you want? It’s water I know people around here pay for like that. You just use and pay the bill at the end of the month.
Mmm. Until now, I thought we all used prepaid and postpaid all around the world. Shocker.
No need to tell the company how much you want, but they can estimate your monthly consumption based on previous history.
Yes, exactly.
Nope, you're the minority, but I think the company over there knows why they use this system. Most likely some of the users won't pay and they would register huge losses. Terms are strict here. You have a certain period to pay, after which you're disconnected and to reconnect to the system, you need to pay a fine, which is quite substantial. I'm always paying my bills, as soon as I get them. There are no power cuts here either 😇
You got that right!
I’m sure the power cut when people fail to pay their bills over there is automatic. Here, it’s not. The VRA personnels walk around town, climb the polls and disconnect lights manually.
How this is a problem is that us Africans tend to leverage our relationships with some of the VRA agents and even result to begging not to be disconnected sometimes. Aside this, I’ve seen cases of people waiting for the VRA agents under the polls with cutlasses after they come to disconnect. I’m sure you get what I mean.
Still though, some people use postpaid, but it’s a hassle getting them to pay up. I’ve heard some households be in power debt up to close to $1000. It’s serious. That wouldn’t happen with prepaid subscriptions because you get what you pay for.
It's not automated here, it's done manually, but it's done without delay, no mercy and there's no negotiation regarding your debt. The only excuse is if someone in the household is on life support. Otherwise they drop the hammer.
I'm transmitting the index of the meter monthly, online, but I have to let the company rep in, to check the meter from time to time, let him take a photo of the meter. Fail to do that and I'm disconnected. Some meters are digital and those are transmitting data automatically to the company. The process is automated. They are going to install those meters everywhere but the process takes time and it's not exactly cheap either.
There are thefts as well, but if you're caught, you go to jail. There are difficult areas, where people are not nice, to put it mildly, so in those areas, the electricity company reps are going with the police and the commando unit, you know, the boys in black, with masks. So no chance for any tricks as you get arrested the minute you try to do something.
That will never happen here, after 45 days you're disconnected and can only be connect back, if you pay. If you don't, after awhile you go to court. It's a slightly different story with companies as bills are a bit bigger, but they don't get a free pass either.
Funny fact is that I'm learning about this too. Why don't they explain this stuffs directly in the beginning? That's the thing with prepaid meteres.
Haha glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. Prepaid meters seem to come with a bunch of complications.
Now it's either one uses them or they face the electricity turmoil.. tch
This thing can be confusing you don't even know your left from right 😂
Right? I felt very stupid after this new discovery cos I’m mostly that person that knows the small details people ignore.
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I’m actually surprised you were never aware of this detail. When I was in university, I used to buy prepaid for the hostel. I would make sure I top up before the current one finishes since I didn’t want to borrow from them. I want to believe everything you borrow in this country surely comes with an interest.
There’s a lot of things that we don’t learn or understand about being an adult, it’s wild man. I learn stuff all the time and think damn, what the hell? That’s the thing, our parents likely didn’t know a bunch of this stuff either and we all learn as we go! Lol