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Western Region office of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has captured the data of twenty-six thousand (26,000) of its customers under the electronic billing system.

Out of the number, the company has since April this year been sending electronic bills to close to twenty thousand customers.

In June 2016, the GWCL informed customers that it was changing over from paper bills to electronic bills, where customers will receive bills on their cell phones via text messages and/or emails.

Later in September, the company announced that it had rolled out the electronic billing system in four regions in the country including Western Region.

Western and Central Regions Public Relations Manager, Nana Yaw Barima Barnie, told ATV news that response from their customers has not been encouraging.

According to him, customers have not been giving their field officers their telephone numbers and other electronic data.

But Nana Barnie explained that the telephone numbers will not be used for any ill-purpose.

He insisted that the telephone numbers were only meant to help GWCL send bills electronically to its customers.

“We have captured about 26,000 customers in terms of our data. However, there are some customers who have not given us their mobile numbers for reasons best known only to them… so we are making a passionate appeal to our customers that it is important for GWCL to get their mobile numbers to enable us send them their water bills promptly.”

He also said: GWCL has also introduced an electronic payment system where customers can sit in the comfort of their homes and pay their utility bills via any of the mobile money platforms.

This system, he said, will be possible if “our customers make available their mobile numbers; GWCL has no evil plan but only to serve our customers better.”

Nana Barnie disclosed the number of customers they have been able to send electronic bills to since April to date.

“In April we sent 17,580 electronic bills to our customers. The number shot up in the month of May to 17,620. However, in the month of June due to some technical challenges, we were able to send only 7,088. In July we sent 19,253. In August we sent the same figure. The September figures are not out, we are now working on them,” he said.