The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama, has explained why Accra Academy and other senior high schools were disconnected from the national electricity grid.
He said, the exercise is part of a nationwide effort to recover debt owed it.
In an interview with TV3, Mr Mahama said the debt stock of customers is becoming too huge, hence the need to take urgent measures to recover them.
“Currently, the schools’ bill is almost GHC45m in arrears,” he said.
According to him, “Across the nation, there is a GHC2.5b debt based on debt stock I am seeing.”
He used the opportunity to apologise to the authorities of Accra Academy for the inconvenience caused.
“For Accra Academy and co, I am sorry for what happened yesterday, I know it was a traumatizing experience. That was not the main aim of the company. I had a conversation with the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, and he has promised to have a meeting with me before the end of this week, so we can find a long-lasting solution to these issues and how we can handle them going forward,” Mr Mahama stated.
Senior High Schools across the country are said to owe the ECG an estimated GHC45m. Accra Academy’s share of this amount is reported to be over GHC400,000.00.
GES Director General resolves Accra Academy power issue, assures it won’t reoccur
Background
ECG on Monday, February 19, disconnected the school from the national grid due to an unpaid debt of over GH¢400,000. This resulted in a total blackout on the entire campus.
Paul Agraga, the head of prosecution at ECG, explained in an interview on Citi FM that “the disconnection is part of an ongoing initiative to recover outstanding payments owed to the company.”
Academic activities resume as ECG restores power supply to Accra Academy
“Normally, we have a team that goes around once a while to inform our customers of their debts, so they do not accumulate and so if you take Accra Academy for example, they owe in excess of GH¢400,000 to the ECG.”
Mr Agraga emphasised the importance of ECG recovering the monies owed to pay off the power producers.
He dismissed the assertion that the company is targeting some selected senior schools.