The Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has reiterated government’s decision to charge everybody with the cost of power they consume irrespective of their status, whether students or workers.
This comes in the wake of protests by irate tertiary students who are dissatisfied with the decision of government to charge students living in residential halls of the various public tertiary institutions with the amount of electricity they consume, as opposed to the previous practice of government footing the bill through subsidies.
According to Iddi Muhayu-Deen, General Secretary of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), government had initially assured students that their utility bills would continue to be taken care of.
However, NUGS’ meeting with Vice-Chancellors of the public universities revealed that tertiary institutions in the country face closure as government has reneged on its word to students.
Dr. Kwabena Donkor, commenting on the matter revealed that providing subsidy for power to some state institutions can no longer be sustained, considering the growing demand for power by the ever-increasing population — adding that the policy of government now is that all users of power must pay for it.
Touching on the students’ agitation about government’s decision, the Power Minister said that government does not intend to entirely remove its hands from the utility subsidy for tertiary institutions.
Rather, what government has decided to do is only pay for the bills of critical academic facilities — such as lecture halls, science laboratories, ICT laboratories among others — but will not pay for students and lecturers’ residential facilities.
“Our policy is that people who use power must pay for it. If you take the University of Ghana, for example, only about 30 percent of the student population are living in the traditional halls; the rest are living in non-traditional halls or hostels and are paying for electricity. Meanwhile, all of them are students of the same university, so why should there be some students paying and others not paying?” he asked.
“What the Finance Ministry has decided to do is that critical academic facilities — lecture halls, laboratories, libraries — will still have their bills paid by the government. However, lecturers’ bungalows, halls of residences and all other areas that do not form part of critical academic facilities will have to pay for the power they consume,” he said.
He further bemoaned that various state institutions like schools and hospitals pay for all other expenses they make with their internally generated funds, but do not want to do so with utilities.
“Another case we have is the hospitals. Hospitals are ready to pay for all other expenses but electricity. Meanwhile, a facility like Korle-Bu Teaching hospital has its internally generated funds higher than the allocation of budget money for the Ministry of Power. Why can’t they pay for power with the same funds?” he asked.
“So what will happen is that bills of some of the facilities such as hospital wards, operating theatres, morgues and the like will be paid by government; but facilities like doctors’ bungalows, hospital canteens will all have to pay the bills for power they consume just like any other citizen,” he said.
He advised that all stakeholders must unite and back government’s effort in making ECG sustainable as part of means to tackle the energy crisis in the country, adding that citizens must conserve the use of power.
In a related development, student leaders in the country are threatening to protest if government remains resolute on the decision to charge students in tertiary institutions living in residential halls. The student leadership of the University of Ghana has given government up to Monday November 9th to reverse its decision.