Power Restored At Accra Academy, GES In Talks With ECG To Prevent Further Disconnections
- Following the intervention of the GES, power has been restored at Accra Academy
- GES says it has initiated talks with ECG to prevent the incident from occurring in other public schools
- Dr Eric Nkansah, the Director-General of GES, says the incident has been most regrettable and will ensure it does not happen again
Power has been restored to Accra Academy. This follows the intervention of the Ghana Education Service (GES) after the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) decision to disconnect the school from the national grid till they settle their debts.
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The Director-General of GES, Dr Eric Nkansah, said per their records, all utility bill payments are up to date, and thus, they were surprised when the school got disconnected.
He noted that following the regrettable incident, the Free Senior High School Secretariat in charge of paying the utility bills for all public secondary schools in the country, has been liaising with the ECG and has settled the bills.
"I have resolved this with the Managing Director of the Electricity Company and the school has been restored, so we do not expect to see what we saw yesterday," he said.
Dr Nkansah stated that the GES will be working closely with the ECG to avoid further power cuts in various secondary schools across the country.
He added that a meeting has been planned with all stakeholders, i.e. the Free SHS Secretariat, the GES and the ECG to discuss ways to streamline payments to avoid future disconnections.
“I can assure you that based on the arrangement that we have and the discussions ongoing, we will certainly not be seeing this going forward,” he said.
Accra Academy gets disconnected
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) cut power to Accra Academy on Monday, February 19, 2024, due to the school's indebtedness to the company.
YEN.com.gh reported that the school owed a whopping GH¢500,000 in post-paid electricity bills since July 2023.
The company said till the school pays at least half of its debt, it was not going to restore power.
This left students and teachers stranded on campus with no electricity to study and work with.
The situation also led to widespread concern about the state of utility in public schools as more schools have huge debts yet to be settled.
ECG’s revenue mobilisation drive and power disconnection
Accra Academy is not the first government-affiliated institution to be disconnected from the power grid since the commencement of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s revenue mobilisation drive.
YEN.com.gh reported that the ECG disconnected a police barracks at Osu in Accra from the power grid after an illegal power connection was found.
The ECG explained that the power would be restored after bills covering at least 12 months and a reconnection fee had been paid.
The ECG task force that detected the illegal connection at one of the barracks of the police force was on rounds chasing consumers for unpaid power debts.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
