The Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh with the blessings of Ya Naa Abukari II has inaugurated an eight-member NEDCo Revenue Protection Taskforce to embark on a rigorous revenue mobilization exercise in the Northern Area especially in Tamale.
The power distributor loses about 45% of its revenue in the entire Northern Area and 48% of the losses is recorded in the Tamale metropolis alone.
This according to the management of NEDCo drags the overall corporate performance below the relevant regulatory benchmarks.
NEDCo Director of Commercials, Mr. Alexander Otu-Larbi, will chair the taskforce and Philip Ali would serve as Secretary to the committee. The other members are; Miss Hilda Alhassan, Mr. Malik Hussein, Miss Ayishetu Ayamga, Mr. John Yamoah, Mr. Terence Ninnang, Mr. Wilfred Sewuah and Mr. Elvis Demuyakor.
The Energy Minister in his address advised members of the taskforce to be civil in the discharge of their mandate and not take this as an opportunity to settle scores with the people.
The Manhyia South lawmaker said the people must be notified and informed through awareness creation campaign prior to their entering of the taskforce into the various communities.
“I want to remind those who are on the taskforce that it’s the service you’re still providing to the people, it does not make the boss. So if you don’t go with respect and humility and you go with confrontations and score settling – I don’t want the situation where one of the members because you have a problem with someone, as soon as you see that person has a problem then, you say, I have taken your meter” he advised.
Smart Meters
The Minister also seized the opportunity to encourage the general public to accept the smart meters, which he explained are introduced to serve customers efficiently and effectively.
He noted the meters would help in addressing the teething problems around billing and the discrepancies in the system for which reason customers must embrace it.
Bills
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh further charged the public to pay their electricity bills in order for NEDCo to discharge their mandate diligently and provide quality service.
“It used to be that customers will call on government that give us better service and we will pay for it, because they didn’t have better service, they had dumsor” he asserted.
The Minister stated that electricity has become a necessity for life and underscored its importance in every aspect of the economy.
He therefore appealed to the Dagbon King to add his revered voice to the clarion call for electricity consumers to be forthcoming with the payment of their bills.
“I want to appeal to the Ya Naa to add his revered voice and tell the people of Yendi to pay for what they use and that if we cannot pay for our electricity, do we deserve to have the electricity, and who should pay for it?
MD Response
The Managing Director of NEDCo, Mr. Osman Aludiba Ayuba for his part bemoaned the new tariff regime announced by the PURC has come to further worsen the sustainability of the business, emphasizing “the current tariff regime which sells a unit of power to consumers at 50.28GHp/kWh when we are supposed to sell the same unit to lifeline customers at 41.91GHp/kWh, thereby making a loss of 8.37/kWh.”
He said this aside; the sustainability of NEDCO is under a very credible threat largely attributed to power theft.
“Our losses in the Northern Area in general and Tamale in particular constitute an existential threat to NEDCO. Whereas the losses in the Northern area hover around 45%, the case in Tamale township is around 48%. This drags the overall corporate performance below the relevant regulatory benchmarks” the MD stated.
