The Public Utility Regulatory Commission says it would launch investigations into an alleged over-billing and insertion of hidden charges in the billing systems of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company.
There have been apprehensions by residents and business owners in the Upper East region over dwindling quantity of units and its speedy consumption in their prepaid meters. Others have also raised suspicions of some hidden charges slapped on them by the utility provider and hence have called for an investigation to unravel the provoking situation.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East show Wednesday, Public Affairs Director of the PURC Nana Yaa Jantuah said the concerns of electricity consumers within the NEDCO zone have come to the notice of the regulatory body and that an enquiry has been initiated to check out for possible anomalies in the billing and metering system of NEDCO.
She explained though the PURC has ordered the suspension of a billing software by the Electricity Company of Ghana, the order does not cover NEDCO because it has not deployed any new software for its operations but noted that the investigations have become necessary following concerns from consumers.
“I don’t think NEDCO has deployed any new billing software but certainly we would do the same exercise in the NEDCO area because we have had complains of over-billing, units running so fast and vanishing. So when we have concluded on this one {ECG} we would come up north to the NEDCO area to find out what the problem actually is with the meters that they have.”
According to her, the regional offices of the PURC have already commenced data gathering and compilation of old and new prepaid receipts from customers after which actual investigations and meter testing would be carried out in the NEDCO zone.
She added that aside the speedy consumption of some meters which calls for interrogations, the issue of hidden charges can’t be completely ruled out following revelations in the ECG zone that some customers were charged well over 300% when the ceiling point is 100%.
“There will be sanctions on the utility provider even before a refunding of the units to customers if it’s established that there have been instances of over-billing,” she added.
Little Pius Naab Mbalebna, a Kindergarten pupil of the Ola school complex was diagnosed of a hole-in-heart condition which is known as double outlet right ventricle.
According to a document seen by a1radioonline.com and signed by Dr. Samuel Blay Nguah Special Pediatrician at the Department of Child Health of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Little Pius was first seen at the hospital on March 1, 2013.
An echocardiogram which was therefore done on 7th March, 2015 revealed that the child had Tetralogy of fallot with good size confluent pulmonary arteries.
He was then referred to the Cardiothoracic Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra where he was diagnosed of the said condition.
His worried father Benjamin Naab narrating to A1 News, said his son looks pale and usually lie on his stomach while having little or no appetite for food.
Little Pius born on May 20, 2012 needs the cedi equivalent of US $8,000 for a surgery to correct the defect.
Mr. Naab has been making frantic efforts to raise the needed amount but it is not enough. He is therefore making a passionate appeal to the general public, NGOs, Cooperate organizations, individuals and philanthropist to help him save the precious life of Pius.
He further cautioned parents to pay much attention to their children’s health needs while advising parents surf the internet and do research on the sickness in order to know much about it.
Little drops of water makes a mighty ocean, your little donation will go a long way to save the life of 4 year old little Pius.
Cash donations can be dropped at the front desk of A1 Radio or contact 0208724872.
What is the price of having smooth skin? Some people spend a lot of money on beauty products which contain shea butter, but not much of that trickles down to the widows of a small farming community in northern Ghana who process nuts from which the moisturising paste is made.
After five days of picking, crushing, roasting, grinding and cooking, 65-year-old Rebecca Atornyege earns eight cedis ($2; £1.40) from selling her shea butter at the market.
Its production is the main commercial activity in Anateem as growing crops is hard in the dry season, the Harmattan, which can last up to eight months.
Mrs Atornyege has to support her family by making and selling shea butter, which has been the preserve of women for generations.
“Our mothers taught us how to process it,” she says.
Rebecca Atornyege:
This shea butter we’re making will be sold to pay for her school fees and buy her books
“When we were children, our mothers used to go to the bush, pick the nuts, come home to pound and grind it before frying it to make butter.
“We used to do the grinding and be singing along. That’s how we learnt the process.”
Mrs Atornyege has set up a widows’ association of eight women who take it turns to help each other in Anateem to prepare butter for market day.
On the day I visit, four others join her and her teenage granddaughter as the ripe nuts from the shea tree are spread out to remove the black rotten ones before the rest are washed.
In recent years, there has been a rise in demand for shea butter as an ingredient not only in skin products, but confectionery and pharmaceuticals.
Shea nuts are harvested from the shea tree which grows wild in West Africa’s savannah region (Photo credit: AFP)
An estimated three million rural women in Ghana make a small income from shea butter, but Mrs Atornyege does not want her granddaughter to be one of them.
“This shea butter we’re making will be sold to pay for her school fees and buy her books.
“My dream is for her to be successful… like a doctor or a nurse. I don’t want her to suffer the way I am suffering.
“Her father was a drunkard and could not take care of her so I took her in to provide for her to go to school. If she becomes a doctor, I would be very proud of her and she would take care of me.”
‘Abuse, jealousy and witchcraft’
Her remark highlights the problems the women face in a community where the men seem to be conspicuously missing.
Those in sight doze under the shade of a tree in the distance as the women crush the nuts and sing to the rhythm of their wooden pestles striking a big granite grinding stone which they struggled to carry outside from the kitchen.
The women say the men never help and often drink with the profits and become abusive.
“It worries us. When we speak about it they tell us it’s because we have no husbands,” one of them says.
Iddi Zakaria works for the Tamale-based Shea Network Ghana, a non-profit organisation working to improve the sector, saying better regulation would help women get better prices.
“Beating of women, violating their rights and assault does happen,” says Mr Zakaria.
More on shea butter:
“Women have infringements on their economic rights as well. Being a wife means every decision must be approved by the man. If you go contrary there’s a price to pay.”
He says jealously is also a problem.
“We have also seen cases of women being driven out by communities who accused them of witchcraft… we think the community became jealous of their success. The thinking is that women are not expected to get rich over their husbands.
“I witnessed in one village where we were meeting shea producers for a cooperative and the husband came and ordered his wife to quit and she had to.”
Hidden snakes
Despite these setbacks, Mr Zakaria says there is a lot of activism by civil society organisations aimed at empowering the women.
Star Shea, a social business started four years ago, aims to help make production profitable for the women by working in co-operatives.
They train them to improve the traditional techniques, from the collection of nuts, processing steps for quality butter and packaging.
The women of Anateem go to the market every Saturday to sell their shea butter
But Anna Perennic, Star Shea’s chief executive, says it will never be a huge money spinner as the women are limited by their own capacity.
A woman may get 30kg (66 lbs) of nuts after walking miles to collect them in the wild in footwear that does not protect them from the many poisonous snakes hiding in the bush.
They will never get rich unless they are working for a small factory or co-operative set up by companies such as Body Shop so that they are able to work throughout the year, Ms Perennic says.
The shea nut season lasts from April until August – and sometimes the women buy surplus nuts from others.
Ms Perennic also says despite it being a multi-million dollar industry “nobody really wants to pay like three times the price” for a product that is used as a cocoa butter equivalent.
During my visit, Mrs Atornyege and her friends produced three small buckets of the product worth $23 – but only managed to sell $2-worth.
“The butter came out good. I was happy and hoping I will make some profit to buy food,” says Mrs Atornyege.
Some if it will be used in the home as soap and pomade, but the rest they will try and sell again at the next weekly market day, along with their next batch.
“I am sad and don’t know what to go home and do.”
To listen to Akwasi Sarpong’s radio documentary on the BBC World Service, click on this link Shea Gold.
Unibank, a private commercial bank has donated a Nissan Hardbody Pickup Vehicle to the Bolgatanga Polytechnic as part of its corporate social responsibilities and also to strengthen the already existing working relationship between the bank and the polytechnic.
The bank is solely Ghanaian owned and currently the third largest bank operating in Ghana after almost 14 years of its existence in the banking industry.
Unibank donates pickup vehicle to Bolga Poly
Speaking at a short ceremony on Tuesday to present the vehicle to the polytechnic, Bolgatanga branch manager of Unibank Lucas Yelabeyani Yirezeme said his outfit has had a fruitful working relationship with the Bolgatanga polytechnic for the past two years. He explained the working relationship with the institution which covers fee collection on campus plus other incentives which have brought so much relief to students especially during fee paying periods.
“As a Ghanaian bank and since our relationship with Bolga polytechnic, we have been doing fee collection and what we do is to plant a Teller on campus to do the fee collection and this for the past two years has eased a lot of stress on students where they have to go to the bank, join queue and pay their fees,” he said.
According to him, the donation of the pickup vehicle is in fulfilment of its corporate social responsibilities and also a gesture to further strengthen the already existing synergy with the polytechnic. He noted that the bank has in the past supported other institutions in the Upper East region since it commenced operations including support to Afrikids and the Ghana Health Service.
Mr. Yelabeyani appealed to the polytechnic to increase the volume of its transactions with the bank.
Unibank donates pickup vehicle to Bolga Poly
An obviously elated Rector of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic Dr. Mba Atinga explained that the polytechnic had a desperate transportation challenge and hence his decision to approach the Unibank for support in March 2016 and after a promise by management to offer a vehicle to the school, the promise has been fulfilled barely two months afterwards.
He described the gesture as a tribute to the relationship with the bank and intimated that the synergy would grow stronger.
The Nissan Hardbody Pickup was purchased at an amount of GH¢ 100,000.
Unibank Branch to Open in Bawku and Paga
Speaking to a1radioonline.com on the sidelines of the donation ceremony, Bolgatanga branch manager of Unibank Lucas Yelabeyani Yirezemi disclosed that plans are in the offing to set up two branches in other parts of the region specifically in Bawku and Paga.
He added that the bank has an appreciable number of customers especially from the Bawku area but that is challenged by the long distance customers have to commute to Bolgatanga to access their banking services and so the need to set up a branch in that area soon.
“The feasibility studies have already been done and I’m hoping that by the third quarter of this year definitely we would start doing some work in Bawku. We also have plans to go to Paga to be able to serve that stretch of our customers.”
Two Teachers of the Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School in the Upper East region have resolved to challenge their transfer from the school following a committee’s probe into an alleged case of sex scandal and assault on two students of the school.
News of a sex scandal and assault of two students of the school broke weeks ago when a female teacher of the school Joyce Asabayire facilitated the shuttling of two students to a house outside the premises of the school to avail them to the wives of two male teachers of the school for interrogation on their suspected intimate relationship with their husbands.
A committee was subsequently set up to investigate the allegations of the sexual affair between the students and teachers and an alleged case of assault on the students in a bid to force them to confess to having sexual relationship with the teachers.
Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Education Madison Amokase Anane, recommended the transfer of the affected teachers namely Mbama Alia and Alex Dewura from the school after the committee presented its report to his office.
The decision by the Municipal Director of Education to recommend transfer of the teachers has generated confusion as some members of the committee who spoke to a1radioonline.com on condition of anonymity say the report was doctored after it was presented to the municipal education office.
But speaking to a1radioonline.com, one of the affected teachers Mbama Alia explained that though they are yet to receive an official notice of their transfer as reported in the media, it is his belief that the transfer punishment is a calculated attempt by some individuals to malign them and impugn their integrity.
According to him, even though the report of the committee is yet to be made public, their checks revealed that the committee did not find them culpable because the two students denied the existence of any intimate relationship.
“The girls denied having any intimate relationship and in fact one of them who happens to be the one they suspected I was having an affair with said she is a virgin and even said she is ready for medical examination to establish that.”
He further stated that their checks again revealed the draft report which was delivered to the municipal education directorate recommended that they get reprimanded and not transferred as it is being reported.
He however failed to indicate the specific action they would take to challenge the transfer but noted that it would be determined after an outcome of a study of the report by the upper east regional minister Hon. Albert Abongo.
Regional Minister Suspends Punishment
Meanwhile when contacted at the time of filing this report, Upper East regional minister Hon. Albert Abongo denied setting up a team to study the committee’s report and said he had instructed a suspension of the recommended transfer action.
According to him, he has studied the report and forwarded it to his deputy for further study after which it would be studied again by the regional coordinating director before a decision is taken.
“We would be arriving at a conclusion within the week after we have all carefully looked at the report and I have instructed that they suspend the recommended actions. We need to be fair to everyone and so we have to look at it carefully,” Hon. Abongo said.
He further stated that a careful study is needed following allegations of distortions of the committee’s report.
Labour Intensive Public Workers (LIPW) at the Kaare Community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have appealed to the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) to pay them for the work they had done.
The Ministry of Local Government with support from the World Bank through the GSOP is supporting the group to rehabilitate degraded communal land using woodlots as means of addressing climate change.
So far the group which is made up 100 persons with only six of them being men and the remaining 94 women mainly widows had rehabilitated 13.4 hectares with over 17760 trees, water them daily and weed around them.
Majority of the women who are widows and mothers expressed their grief and revealed that GSOP between 2012 to 2015 had defaulted in paying many of them.
The leader of the group, Madam Lardi Akunia said they are expected to be paid for 14 working days and each of them is expected to receive seven Ghana cedis per a day.
She said whilst GSOP sometimes decides to offer them two days or three days payment others were not even paid at all after they had worked.
She indicated that they had been cheated for far too long and had decided this time round not to accept such payments until GSOP pays them all their outstanding cash.
Madam Akunia explained that what is even more disturbing was that in 2015 when GSOP introduced the E-switch payment, majority of them were affected and had not since been paid up to date.
“Most of us are widows and have children to cater for. We are now hard pressed especially as the farming season is here with us. We are appealing to GSOP to speed up the process to pay us to enable us buy farm inputs to farm and to take good care of our children,” the leader of the women group stressed.
Mr Daniel Bangrey, the Community Facilitator of the Kaare Climate Change Project stated that due to the commitment and hard work of the women on the project, the project was adjudged the best climate change project in the county last year.
“The trees have a surviving rate of 99.9 percent as confirmed by the Department of Forestry. Even the Savannah Accelerated Development (SADA) which planted their trees could not achieve that good result. As somebody who has the passion for climate change I decided to offer the family land for the project. But what is more painful is that in 2015 the women group were made by GSOP to water the land and dig holes on another 1.6 hectares for another plantation but never supported them to plant and did not also pay for their labour.”
He regretted that the materials that were provided for fencing the plantation were of sub-standard hence making it possible for animals to invade the plantation to cause destruction and appealed to GSOP to provide high quality materials for the fencing.
He said he was not happy that labour had been reduced from 320 in 2012 to 27 in 2016 and stated that this would automatically have greater negative impact on the climate change project.
Meanwhile in an interview with the Regional Coordinator of GSOP Madam Adwoa Asotia- Boakye, she said she had invited the climate focal person, the extension agent and the Community facilitators who provide leadership to the groups to see how the problem could be resolved.
Whilst appealing to the women groups to exercise restrain as the problem is being addressed, she called on the climate change focal person, the extension agent and the Community facilitator of the GSOP, to work together by submitting the Labour Request forms for early payment to avoid such problems.
She admitted that some of the group members were affected with the E-switch payment but gave the assurance that everything was being done to address the anomaly.
Madam Asotia- Boakye who informed the community that the support for the climate change project would end in 2017, said they would rip the full benefits of the project afterwards.
Three teachers of the Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School (SHS) in the Upper East Region have been released from the school for their part in a sex scandal and assault on two students.
Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Education Madison Amokase Anane, who was not enthused about the behaviour of and various roles played the teachers in relation to the scandal recommended the transfer of the affected teachers from the school after a disciplinary committee probe.
Class FM’s Upper East Regional correspondent, William Jalulah, reports that the transfer takes effect from the next academic year which begins in September this year.
It would be recalled that Class News recently carried a story about a sex scandal which hit the school leading to the setting up of a committee to investigate the matter.
The committee, after completing its work, subsequently presented the report to the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Education.
It was discovered that the committee had failed to propose an appropriate sanction, hence the education director recommending the teachers be transferred.
Class News’ investigations have revealed that during the investigations, members of the committee disagreed over the information and facts gathered. While some members were biased towards the teachers, others were firm and resolute towards sanctions that should be meted out to the culprits.
The misunderstanding resulted in the committee stating that the indicted teachers should be sanctioned but stopping short of specifying the punishment.
The director, therefore, recommended that the male teachers involved, Mbama Alia and Alex Dewura, be released from the school. Joyce Asabayire, the female teacher who together with her two accomplices beat up the two school girls on suspicion that the pupils were flirting with their husbands, has also been released from the school.
The decision by the director has since sparked confusion in the school as some members of the committee have argued that the decision by the director was unfair.
The indicted teachers have also threatened to draw the director to court over the sanctions. Meanwhile, the Regional Minister, Albert Abongo, has requested for a copy of the report and has set up a team to study it and advise him accordingly.
Job guarantee after nursing training college which is one of the baits that attract people to the profession will no longer exist from 2018 according to the Health Minister.
Alex Segbefia said nurses trainees will have to apply and justify their suitability for the jobs that will be available in the health sector. They will have to join the job market just as any other graduate from any tertiary institution.
The Minister of Health Alex Segbefia made these comment during a public sensitization forum held in Ho for the conversion of the Volta Regional Hospital into a Teaching Hospital.
Alex Segebfia was responding to concerns raised by some participants over the motivation for nurses who will be working in the hospital after it has been converted into a Teaching Hospital.
The hospital is expected to be re-designated as a Teaching Hospital by the end of September 2016.
The forum was to engage various stakeholders in the process of converting the Volta Regional Hospital popularly called ‘Trafalgar’ into a Teaching Hospital.
District Assembly to Stand-In As GPEG Support Fades Out
The Talensi District Chief Executive in the Upper East Region, Edward Awunore has expressed readiness of his assembly to support fully the activities of the District Health and Education Directorates to enhance effective and smooth running of the institutions.
Hon. Awunore gave this assurance following a worry expressed by the Talensi district education directorate as the Ghana Partnership Education Grant GPEG exits from the system.
The Talensi district education directorate has under the GPEG fund, presented six motorbikes and eight gas cylinders and burner stoves with accessories to six circuit supervisors and hardworking head teachers in the district respectively.
District Assembly to Stand-In As GPEG Support Fades Out
At a ceremony to present the items on Wednesday, district deputy director in charge of supervision Atingabono Roland who delivered a welcome address on behalf of the district director of education, Faara Joachim expressed worry that activities which are being catered for by the fund may come to a halt.
“Among the support from the GPEG fund included teacher’s awards, fuel support for circuit supervisors, capacity building among others. Today GPEG is winding up and am worried how we are going to sustain the numerous activities that we have with GPEG support especially fuel and the office is handicapped financially,” he added.
He also made a passionate appeal to the assembly to support persons living with disabilities in their schools who were being supported by GPEG. He added that the assembly should make it a point to cater for them like it was the case with GPEG fund.
District Assembly to Stand-In As GPEG Support Fades Out
But the district chief executive for Talensi, Edward Awunore assured the directorate the assembly will not relent in supporting the directorate and maintaining the existing activities. According to him, maintaining the activities should not be a worry to the directorate while revealing the plans that are underway to make the Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service part of the assembly.
“All other areas that were handled by the GPEG fund, ought not to be stopped and even if we have to maintain them, we have to plan in such a way that we harness resources to maintain what is already in existence. But I do not see it to be something that is or will be above us. You are aware that currently we run a decentralization system where the GES and GHS are currently what we refer to as schedule departments, meaning these departments work within the domain of the assembly while reporting sometimes and most often directly to their mother departments at the region and headquarters. Very soon the GHS and GES will not be described as schedule two departments, they will now be schedule one departments just like some other decentralized departments. And as part of that, a directive was given to all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to prepare for that system. It means that when it becomes effective, the GES is going to be one of the units of the assembly as a schedule one department so the education department will be able to get the needed resources to undertake its activities. You look at the composite budget of the assembly and you look at the quantum of money that goes into education and health compared to other departments, it is very clear that the two bodies take the chunk of our budget even though they are schedule two department and so if they are now made schedule one departments then we can assure you that you will not be disappointed. We will do everything possible to harness resources to maintain the system and even improve upon it” he stated.
The awardees included Madam Joan Timbila of Awaradone KG, Bolmeng David of Dapore primary school, A-enkonge Banabas of St. Thomas JHS, Alfred Atameya of Shea JHS, Asabea Albert of Namoranteng Prim. Sch., Cecelia Anafo of Bapelogo KG, Baba Anachinaba of Tenzug Prim. School and Konlan George of Kpatia Primary School.
The DCE cautioned them to lead lives that will reflect the reasons why they were chosen for the awards.
Talensi District Benefits from Tree Planting Project
As part of its 10TH anniversary celebration, the leading waste management company in Ghana, Zoomlion Ghana limited has initiated a tree planting project in the Talensi district of the Upper East region.
As a company with a vision to be the champion of clean, green and healthy environment, the company has initiated the project in fulfillment of the greening aspect of its vision.
In an exclusive interview with A1 News, manager of the company for the upper east region John Sackey said people most often than not associate them to only the cleaning aspect hence reason the company has to initiate the move in accomplishing their greening goal.
“Zoomlion has a vision and the vision is to be the champion of clean, green and healthy environment which means that we do dirt cleaning as people know, green is that we do landscaping and beautification so we plant trees and all that will help to keep our environment green and the healthy aspect is educating the people on the need to live healthy lives and this is the greening aspect we are witnessing today,” he said.
He noted that the climate change that is been talked about is real so trees are very important in our eco system because enough trees will reduce the greenhouse effect and thereby reducing the amount of sunshine that directly hit us. He mentioned also that trees also give us enough oxygen to live in a healthy environment and we need to also plant trees to protect us from the heavy wind that accompanies the rains these days.
Talensi District Benefits from Tree Planting Project
He urged the people of Talensi to take proper care of the trees adding that the trees should not be seen us Zoomlion Ghana limited project but one that is for them. According to him, the trees will live to benefit everyone and so the public should cooperate with them to make the project fruitful.
The District Chief Executive for the area, Edward Awunore bemoaned the practice of tree felling at the eastern part of the district and warned that those culprits should stop their actions or face the law when caught.
He wondered why people will fell down trees when the trees are very important to living things. He further made a passionate appeal to traditional and opinion leaders, youth and women groups and individuals to report the culprits to the appropriate bodies which are the Ghana Police service, Wildlife reserve, Forestry commission and the district assembly for necessary action to be taken.
“Tree planting is very important if we want to have a better future and so we have been encouraging traditional and opinion leaders including women and youth groups to show some interest in tree planting. In fact in the Talensi district I am about starting a crusade with the traditional council to see how we can empower the traditional leaders to move into tree planting and I believe that with the chiefs and their queen mothers, they will take tree planting serious if given the needed support,” he stated.
On behalf of the Paramount chief for the Talensi traditional area, Naab KugbilsongNalebteng, the chief of WinkogoNaba Moses Agangzua highlighted the benefits of the mahogany trees to the citizens.
Among other things, the chief said the mahogany tree provides good shade and have medicinal benefits which most people can attest to. He therefore called on his people to see to the success of the project. He urged both the young and the old to embrace the project and do their best to cater for the trees.
As the one in charge of the project, district manager for Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the Talensi district, John Boare Yin promised to make sure that his staff water the trees enough to enable them grow well.
“Even if in an unfortunate event a tree dies, we will replace that tree to ensure that the five hundred (500) trees mature in number,” Mr. Boare stressed.
The trees are being planted on both sides of the Winkogo-Tongo road.
