For the second consecutive year, the Northern Regional office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has won the overall Best Performing region out of the sixteen (16) regions nationwide. The Northern Regional office has become the first region to win the national award and defended it since the awards begun.
The region has lagged behind its peers over the years until last year 2022 when they won the award for the first time through hardwork, dedication and commitment to duty.
The Regional Manager, Mr. Edward Boduah, in interview with THE CUSTODIAN on the sidelines of a thanksgiving dinner in Tamale on Thursday (December 21, 2023) expressed his excitement for the milestone achievement.
“It’s very exciting and I thank the Almighty for the opportunity he has given to me to lead this region and also to thank my hardworking staff, the media, the utilities and our stakeholders that we have been working with and my management in Accra” he lauded.
The Manager recounted when he was transferred in 2022 to the northern region, there was a trust deficit between the consuming public and utility service providers; narrating in order to bridge that gap, the regional office introduced the “Voice of Trust” campaign to address the issues of mistrust between the general public and utilities.
“So we did a lot engagement [engagement with chiefs], media, engagement with consumers in various communities with the help of assembly members. We did engagement with the utilities themselves and other stakeholders like the Pastors and Imams and anyone that we thought was important to be heard and take their inputs and suggestions” he added.
Mr. Boduah maintained: “At the end of 2022, we realized that we were able to resolve that trust deficit and we realized that the people were coming on board very well and so 2023, we came out with the theme to indicate a rescue agenda.”
He asserted that the rescue agenda aimed at addressing the age-long revenue losses by the utilities coupled with the widespread power and water thefts in the region.
“And so we thought that if we rescue the service providers as well as consumers because we realized that when some of the consumers steal power and they were billed, they couldn’t pay the money and they will be in darkness and some wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of not doing self-connections but would do the self-connection and then they will be billed again.”
The PURC Manager emphasized some consumers in the past have been caught severally engaging in illegal connections. He however stated there is some attitudinal change as a result of the continuous public education on consumers’ rights and obligations.
Mr. Edward Boduah intimated the rescue agenda has also translated into revenue increase for the utility service providers for the period, saying hitherto, the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) was struggling with a revenue loss of 64 percent but stressed the situation is about 42 percent today.
2024 agenda
Meanwhile, the PURC Northern Regional office has adopted a new theme moving into the New Year 2024. He announced the 2024 theme is: Collaborative Regulation for Strategic Impact.
This means the regulator in the northern region is opened to more collaboration with all relevant stakeholders to consolidate the successes achieved in the past two years.
Some of the organizations that participated in the thanksgiving dinner included the Ghana Water Company, NEDCO, National Communications Authority, National Petroleum Authority and National Pensions Regulatory Authority.
