Illegal connection activities increase power outages

Mr. Abraham Damtey Lincoln, the Eastern Regional Marketing Manager of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has indicated that the intermittent power outages which occur in Ghana are caused by the illegal connection activities carried out by the individuals.

Educating residents in Akim Oda on the impact of illegal connection activities, Mr. Abraham said the illegal connection activities hamper ECG’s transformers and their accessories and advised those who indulge in such heinous acts to refrain from that. According to him, residents in Akim Oda and beyond should visit ECG’s offices to request meters of their choices and other services relating to electricity rather than choosing to embark on illegal connection activities.

Mr. Abraham made these statements at the 3rd Ordinary Meeting of the Second Session of the 8th Birim Central Municipal Assembly held in Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.

He further said the Ministry of Energy has instituted a revenue task force to oversee the collection of revenue from the ECG’s beneficiaries and informed participants to educate their relatives to pay their electricity bills as and when necessary to avoid disconnection. This he said would also go a long way to make government obtains funds to expand its rural electrification projects.

On interventions to address the challenges of ECG’s customers quickly, Mr. Abraham said the Eastern Regional Office of Electricity Company of Ghana would create group WhatsApp platforms for each district within the Region to monitor and collate information on power outages, illegal connection activities among others and encouraged the beneficiaries of the platform to report issues concerning electricity on the said platform.

In another development, Mrs. Victoria Adu, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Birim Central thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for recognizing her immense contributions in Akyem Oda Constituency and appointed her into the office for the second time as the Municipal Chief Executive. She also commended all those who supported her both in-kind and spiritually to make her confirmation a success.

According to her, the effective collaboration existing between the Staff of the Assembly and the Assembly Members has improved the Assembly’s performance in recent times, adding that this improvement placed the Birim Central Municipal Assembly on the 7th position when all 260 MMDAs nationwide were assessed on implementation of the performance contract. She was quick to add that, not too long ago, the said Assembly was also selected among the 10 best performing Assemblies within the Eastern Region.

However, Mrs. Adu indicated that the Birim Central Municipal Assembly was awarded by the government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and said the awards received by the said Assembly included the citation, laptops, computers, scanner among others and emphasized that the aforementioned items had also been given to the departments that do not have such office equipment.

On a strategy adopted to deal the stray animals by Assembly, Mrs. Adu touched on the “shoot to kill strategy” and said the effective implementation of the strategy would go a long way to remove animals from the principal streets of Akim Oda and also prevent residents’ backyard gardens from being destroyed by the animals.

Widening the tax networks of the Assembly, the Assembly Members indicated that the rent charges on Assembly’s bungalow were below standards and urged the management of the Assembly to increase the said charges to ensure Assembly gets more funds to undertake other projects in the Municipality.

Other key issues discussed at the Meeting by the participants included the approval of the Assembly’s Annual Action Plan, 2022 Fee Fixing Resolution of the Assembly, Assembly’ 2022 Composite Budget and Municipal Draft Spatial Development from 2020 – 2040.

The Meeting was attended by the government’s appointees, Assembly Members and Heads of Departments.