Corporate Communications Manager for Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Maxwell Kotoka has expressed grief about the high level of illegal connections in the Kabonwule area of the Northern Region.
This comes at the back of a report by HappyFM/e.TV Ghana that revealed that about 80 to 85 percent of homes in Kabonwule in the Northern Region steal power through illegal connections.
Reacting to this report, Maxwell Kotoka revealed NEDCo has been in the known about this illegality for a while, but admitted they have been faced with a number of challenges in attempting to resolve this.
He explained that, the people of Kabonwule rely on farming as the main source of income and as such, only make money during the harvest season to pay for their bills.
According to him, the meters of residents are post-paid and when the monthly bill is ready, most of them have difficulty in settling that.
“During the planting season they can’t pay for bills because they have no money coming in,” he told Samuel Eshun on Happy Morning Show (#HappyHMS) aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy 98.9FM.
He disclosed that when they disconnect their lights as a result of outstanding bills, residents of the area connect these illegal wires. “Kabonwule is about 20 minute drive from the service center so it makes monitoring their electrical connections difficult. We decided to take another strategy by disconnecting from the main pole and even with that they know their way about reconnecting them with their illegal wires,” he said.
He assured, however, that his team would take adequate strategies in resolving this issue. “There are some other areas around Kabonwule with the same issue and the way forward now is to review all these areas, open service centers close to their residence and install insulated cables,” he added.
Northern regional correspondent for Happy 98.9FM and e. TV Ghana, Evans Manasseh in a recent interview with Sefa-Danquah via phone on the Happy Morning Show (#HappyHMS) revealed that over 80 to 85% of individuals living in the Kabonwule community have their light connected illegally even though they can go through the appropriate channels to get light legally.
Louisa Antiede Tetteh
