Free SHS Secretariat pays ¢5m to ECG for SHSs electricity bills debt

The Free Senior High School (Free SHS) Secretariate has released GH¢5 million to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to settle part of the electricity debt owed by government Senior High Schools in the country.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Director of Communication of the ECG, William Boateng, said the Free SHS Secretariat has scheduled a meeting with his outfit to look at the total indebtedness of SHSs in areas the ECG covers.

“The Free SHS Secretariat has requested a meeting with the Electricity Company of Ghana on Wednesday to furnish it with the total indebtedness of all the SHSs within the ECG’s operational areas,” Mr Boateng told the Daily Graphic.

His comment comes after the Ghana Electricity Company disconnected Accra Academy Senior High School from the national grid on February 19, 2024, leaving the entire campus in total darkness due to unpaid arrears.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) revealed that Accra Academy Senior High School was disconnected from the power grid due to an outstanding debt of GH¢400,000.

In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM, Paul Agraga, the head of prosecution at ECG, explained that the disconnection is part of an ongoing initiative to recover outstanding payments owed to the company.

“Normally, we have a team that goes around once a while to inform our customers of their debts so they do not accumulate and so if you take Accra Academy for example, they owe in excess of GH¢400,000 to the ECG,” he said.

He further explained and dismissed allegations that the ECG is deliberately targeting the school and stressed that the company also owes its partners which it has to pay.

“We did not specifically target Accra Academy, it is an ongoing operation we are conducting, and a number of homes, businesses, and institutions have also suffered the same fate

The no-free consumption does not discriminate at all and once you owe, you will be disconnected. It does not matter whether it is Parliament or a security service because we also owe people that we have to pay,” the ECG official told Citi FM.