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Sagnarigu, Ghana – Managing Director of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Osmani Aludiba Ayuba, has expressed aghast over how a predominantly Christian and Muslim cosmopolitan city like Tamale could be seriously engulfed in an ungodly act like thievery.
Speaking at a media sensitization seminar organised by the Northern Regional Secretariat of the Ghana Journalists’ Association in collaboration with the NEDCo at Sagnarigu in the Northern Region, Mr. Ayuba observed, that it was very unfortunate that both Christians and Muslims were engaged in the act of stealing power from the company which was contributing negatively to its progress.
“This business that were doing is so critical. Power is so critical that I don’t need talk much about it. Without power, we cannot do anything. But we don’t get the power for free…. We actually buy the power from VRA. VRA produces and we buy and sell to customers. So we play a very critical role. VRA doesn’t give us the power for free. So we need money to continue to buy the power, we need money to buy the metres for you, we money to buy the poles to replace the broken down poles, we need money to buy the transformers that have blown, we need money to work on the network.all these call for money..
“Fortunately, were in an environment where religion is very high, we hold it in high esteem, lots of Christians, lots of Muslims. We go to the churches, we go to the mosques, but unfortunately what happens? We steal the power and we go to pray, we steal the power and we to go to fast, we steal the power to break our fast and all of those things, its not good. Lets try to shy away from that”, he lamented.
Earlier in a presentation by Engineer John Yamoah on Power Distribution Structure & System Challenges in Northern Ghana and the Way Forward and Ensuring Quality and Regular Power Supply in the NEDCo Areas: Operational Bottlenecks and the Way Forward, he said the Tamale Area Operations of NEDCo recorded higher losses monthly due to increasing power theft.
Power distribution in the Tamale Area, he pointed out, yielded insignificant revenue to the company compared to other operational areas within the entire NEDCo region which spans over six regions including Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and parts of the Oti Region.
“Tamale is one of the areas the company is supposed to make a lot of revenue but sadly the company is losing 48% of total revenue every month to power theft whereas the entire NEDCo operational area is losing 45% of total revenue per month,” Mr. Yamoah stressed.
The MD of NEDCo also expressed concern over the persistent attacks on his field staff at the hands of customers engaged in power theft and other negative activities which thwarted the efforts of the company.
“Our staff suffer a lot in the field of work; they go to check on illegal connections, they (people) beat them up and all of that and so its really strenuous for us to work. We need to have a very nice environment for us to do our legitimate job and continue to provide you with the quality power supply that you need to do your businesses and handle other things”.
He appealed to journalists and the media to partner with NEDCo to educate the public particularly its customers to understand the negative impact some of their actions tend to have on the operations of the company.
The media sensitization meeting brought together journalists and other media practitioners from various media establishments in the North East, Savannah and Northern Regions.
The meeting sought to enable journalists and other media practitioners understand the operational challenges of NEDCo and see how they could assist the power company to do effective advocacy for people especially customers to appreciate their challenges and cooperate with them to deliver quality and efficient service to them.
By SavannahNewsOnline.Com/Joseph Ziem
