The roll out of a new technology will see electricity consumers in Ghana purchase and use power like their mobile phone credit recharge system. The Ghana Electrometer (GEM) company is partnering the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to deploy the ‘Smart G pre-paid meters’ in the country. Under the project, the ECG would be providing scratch cards that can be bought from vendors anywhere. This is expected to improve service efficiency and increase the company’s cash flow. The Ashanti-West Region of ECG is piloting the meter installation. Director of Operations and External Relations at GEM, Obed Solomon, tells Luv Biz Report the pilot phase will last between 3-6 months before full project implementation. “The numbers we are talking about are quite big and so the pilot will cover about 2,000 meters and the implementation itself should take off first quarter of 2014”, he said. Under the full roll out plan, all existing meters are expected to be replaced with the new Smart G pre-paid meters. Obed describes the technology as unique in offering consumers comfort and choice in the purchase and consumption of power. According to him, customers will have more options to purchase power because “you could enter into a shop or buy by the roadside some credit on the scratch card to load credit on your meter or you could just send SMS and credit will be transferred straight to your meter”. The project is also expected to create job avenues, especially in merchandising the scratch cards. GEM is the country's only locally based electricity metering company.