UDS Navrongo cut off national grid over 7-year bill

The Students' Representative Council (SRC) of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Navrongo Campus, has given the management of the school and the government a three-day ultimatum to restore electricity to the campus following its disconnection from the national grid by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) or they will abandon academic activities and demonstrate.

NEDCO, on Wednesday, 2 October 2019, disconnected the university for failing to pay its bills since 2012.

A statement signed by UDS Navrongo campus’ SRC President, Otivi Raymond, explained that: “We [UDS] are not the only institution owing in Navrongo but other institutions have shown a level of commitment in paying their arrears unlike UDS Navrongo campus and hence the reason for the disconnection”.

“We are by this communiqué giving both the government of Ghana and the management of UDS a three-day ultimatum to resolve this issue for light to be restored on campus. Failure to do so, we will abandon all academic activities and go on a massive demonstration,” the SRC statement said.

Read the full statement below:

I bring you greetings from the office of the SRC President UDS Navrongo Campus.

We wish to use this communiqué to inform all students of UDS Navrongo Campus that the leadership of the SRC is aware of the unfortunate incident that has happened on our campus concerning NEDCO disconnecting our campus from their distribution network due to the institution’s failure to settle debt it owes.

As the leadership of the SRC, we made various consultation with all the parties involved to ascertain the fact concerning the disconnection of electricity supply.

The SRC President and his PRO met the NEDCO manager in charge of Navrongo to hear from him the reasons behind their actions. In that consultation, we got to know that:

1. The campus has been owing NEDCO since the year 2012.

2. Even though we are a government institution, we are not the only institution owned by the government in Navrongo but other institutions have shown a level of commitment in paying their arrears unlike UDS Navrongo Campus and hence the reason for the disconnection.

3. We are reliably informed that this decision by the management of NEDCO is as a result of a directive they have received from above and there is nothing they can do unless management pay the arrears.

The leadership of the SRC, UDS Navrongo campus, finds it strange that the management has not been able to pay a pesewa of the electricity bill since 2012.

We are, by this communiqué, giving both the government of Ghana and the management of UDS a three-day ultimatum to resolve this issue for light to be restored on campus.

Failure to do so, we will abandon all academic activities and go on a massive demonstration.

For now, we urge our students to remain calm and be assured that we, the leadership of the SRC, are committed to the welfare of our students and will always represent their interest.