MMDAs to suffer power cuts when they default in paying bills

Minister for Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has directed the National Power Agencies to disconnect metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) which default in the payment of electricity bills.

He said the huge financial investment needed to supply power for both industrial and domestic use warrants very tough measures, including compelling government agencies to pay for power services to enable the relevant power generating outfits to survive.

Also to be affected by the directive are palaces in traditional settings, and the Minister said the new arrangement was to ensure a continuous a reliable supply of electricity across the country.

The only exceptions are government schools, government hospitals and health facilities, and security installations, Dr Donkor said, insisting that unless there was a prior arrangement for scheduled payments, the MMDAs would have to endure the situation.

"Electricity generation is becoming very expensive, and we need to be more responsible in our consumption," he said.

At a meeting with the Deputy Minister for Upper West, Dr Musheibu Mohammed-Alfa, the Minister instructed officials of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) and GRIDCO to be firm on the issue to enable them stay in operation.

Protecting essential agencies

"We have to protect these institutions so they would continue to function at top level and provide us with essential services," he said.

"The likes of GNTC (Ghana National Trading Company) are defunct because we did not protect them from possible collapse. I believe state institutions have a role to play in our development, but they have to be run commercially and successfully," he said.

Power crisis to end

The Minister was in the Upper West Region as part of a tour of the power generating sites and distribution plants in northern Ghana, and announced that the current load shedding exercise would end this year.

Citing a visible improvement in the situation over the past week, he said the signs had already begun showing, and stressed that the timeline set by government for the end of the exercise remained unchanged.

"The situation has improved at the moment," he said, adding that "it is government's commitment to find solution to the problem before the year ends".

He acknowledged that Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions were together "the most under-served" in terms of access to electricity among Ghana's 10 regions, and stressed government's commitment to connecting more communities within those three regions onto the national electricity grid.

Dr Mohammed-Alfa, the deputy Upper West Minister, said the directive was not out of place in the wake of the circumstances of Ghana's power generation and distribution requirements.

He said the various government agencies must factor such expenses into their budget and ensure that they work within their financial strength.

He said the region still needed power in various corners, and appealed that such efforts were hastened.