The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama, has apologised to the authorities of Accra Academy for the disconnection of the school from the national grid yesterday.
He explained that 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 exercise.
“Currently, the schools’ bill is almost GHC45m in arrears. Across the nation, there is a GHC2.5b debt based on debt stock I am seeing. 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,” he 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.
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.”
“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.
