NEDCo retrieves GH₵5.1m of debts from customers in Upper East and North East Regions
The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) has retrieved GH₵5,165,100.64 in debt from its customers in the Upper East and North East Regions within two weeks of its nationwide revenue mobilisation drive.
Many households and institutions including state agencies in the two regions that were in debt default have also been disconnected from power supply.
Mr William Asare, the Billing and Protection Officer, NEDCo, in charge of Upper East and North East Regions, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bolgatanga, noted that NEDCo was committed to retrieving all monies owed it.
As at January 2023, customers of NEDCo in the Upper East and North East regions owed the power distribution company GH₵125 million with ordinary customers amounting to GH₵77 million while government ministries and departments owed GH₵50 million.
Mr Asare indicated that the huge unpaid debt was threatening the survival of NEDCo and all necessary measures would be deployed to ensure that the Company retrieved all monies it owed to stay in business.
“Ghana Grid Company supplies the power to us, and we distribute, so we pay the Volta River Authority for the power that we buy from them and GRIDCo for the power that they transmit to us.
“If the distribution companies are not able to pay for the cost of power transmission, then we are collapsing the power chain and that is the state of the power supply chain now because we are indebted to GRIDCo and VRA more than our customers are indebted to us,” he said.
The Billing and Protection Officer noted that power theft remained the biggest threat to the Company in its operational areas and noted that in the 2022 alone, the Company lost 25 percent of its power distribution to theft in the Upper East and North East regions.
“This means that we could not account for 25 per cent of our power which is way above industry practice, and it is pervasive in the Bawku and Paga areas.
“So, we have deployed split smart pre-paid metres aimed at curbing the problem but even with that they climb the poles and bypass the metres and it is causing us a lot,” he said.
Mr Asare noted that between 2022 and 2023, about 500 customers were arrested for power theft and added that out of the number, more than 300 customers had not paid the penalties awarded to them.
“Power theft is a crime, so we have compiled the list of these customers and forwarded to our legal team to begin the prosecution and going forward we are working on introducing a technology that will help detect these incidents in real time and act on them,” Mr Asare said.
He, therefore, appealed to customers to endeavour to pay their debts in order to sustain the company and urged the public to report unscrupulous persons engaged in illegal connection, to the company for action.
On April 18, 2023, the NEDCo and VRA, the country’s power distribution companies begun a nationwide revenue mobilization exercise targeting customers that owed the company.
Source: GNA