Watch out (Western) World, Ghanaians are Ready for You!

Somehow, somewhere, there is a 16-yr-old budding American journalist who must be looking behind her shoulder wondering what next to write about the country she's currently visiting. Somehow, somewhere, she must be regretting ever claiming that:

These people are lucky if they have power until 2 p.m

Then, these women! They carry their laundry and groceries on their heads! ON THEIR HEADS! I wish I could see their neck muscles, they must be gigantic

Aunt Barb had a three-minute shower to wash her hair, and when I got in after her, the hot water was gone! It's craziness

Note to everyone: if you are ever traveling and the menu says beef, ask them to define beef. Chances are beef in Ghana is goat

I am not going to try to debunk these myths. A quick click on the "SHARE" button, and the story, by Jessica Wolk, 16, of "Glassboro,...considering going to the University of Maryland, Arcadia University or Rowan University" and who is in Ghana with International Healthcare Volunteers, was all over Facebook.

The following are some of the responses:

Tuesday at 12:36pm · Comment · · View Feedback (13)Hide Feedback (13) · Share

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    Nana Fredua-Agyeman it is called ignorance and prejudice... looking for things that aren't there...
    

    Tuesday at 12:39pm · ·
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    Emmanuel K Bensah Jr if u consider how much of a "backwater" where she is from is perceived to be, it might make sense why she's making such assumptions. Goes to show, also, that Western 16-yr-olds do not necessarily feel part of the "global village" we all assume we are in!;-)
    

    Tuesday at 12:48pm · ·
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    Julius Sowu
    

    As is our duty as generous hosts, we should not chide her, she is young and was brought up with the impression that electricity was created by mystical creatures who lived below ground and produced endless supply, that can be wasted.
    
    I say w...e are lucky to have an opportunity to show true reality to such as she, seeing as her elders do not have a clue she maybe will grow up to do the right things.See More

    Tuesday at 12:58pm · ·
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    Emmanuel K Bensah Jr I guess you made a valid point, Julius! 16 is STILL rather young!
    

    Tuesday at 1:01pm · ·
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    Leanne Rae Halewyck Why don't you invite her over to your place for a goat "beef" barbeque and amaze her with your trick of turning on the lights - *at night*?
    

    Tuesday at 1:06pm · · 1 personYou like this. ·
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    Katrina Olson I am so tempted to comment on her post that she finally experienced using a toilet while being in Ghana - times in NJ must be tough!
    

    Tuesday at 1:16pm · · 1 personLoading... ·
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    Leanne Rae Halewyck LOL - so true Katrina! Man, they have it good in Africa: electricity until 2pm AND toilets!
    

    Tuesday at 1:17pm · · 1 personLoading... ·
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    Julius Sowu
    

    ‎@Emman 16 is just the right age for her to awaken from the sleep that is living in the west, most kids do not have such an amazing opportunity to see reality up close and personal.
    
    Lets just hope she goes beyond pink buildings in Osu, and ...air conditioned imitations of somewhere else, but takes time to opens her eyes.See More

    Tuesday at 1:22pm · · 1 personLoading... ·
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    Chris Howusu Just written like a teenager. Goat as beef? Nonsense. Not in Ghana. Ghanaians prefer goat anyway. Sometimes the difference between the West and developing countries is exagerated. As someone whose MA dissertation was about internet comments of tourists visiting Ghana,this one takes the biscuit.
    

    Tuesday at 1:50pm · · 1 personLoading... ·
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    Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
    

    When I read the article, my initial reaction was shock. But I then noticed that she is only 16 and probably travelling to Ghana for the first time. It is a pity it appears those bringing her down did not orient her.
    
    She is however, stereoty...pical of most Americans I have met who were arriving in the country for the first time.See More

    Tuesday at 2:18pm · ·
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    Emmanuel K Bensah Jr ‎@Leanne & Katrina: I think you make a good comedy-duo;-D really made my afternoon...literally fell off my chair!;-)) @Julius: here's to her opening her eyes! I almost feel sorry for having launched this blitzkrieg on her African adventure!;-) @Chris: would love to see a website where you have some of the BEST internet comments on Ghana!! Can u manage that? keep the fire burning!
    

    Tuesday at 2:20pm · ·
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    Bob Palitz
    

    Folks....let's take a moment to put things in perspective. We have a 16 year old, who has probably not traveled outside the US before (note her comment on the size of the plane). She's coming here to do good volunteer work (see her organiza...tion's web site) and she freely admits to not really knowing what she's getting into. She's blogging, which means that initial impressions are thrown out there before they have had time to "mature". By the time she leaves Ghana she will have an appreciation for different cultures and economic circumstances that she has not yet had the chance to experience in her life. So it's cool.
    
    And Americans do not have a monopoly on cultural and geographic ignorance. Care to know how many Ghanaians I have met who think Hawaii is in the Caribbean and were unaware it became one of the United States over 50 years ago? ;-)See More

    Tuesday at 2:38pm · · 2 peopleLoading... ·
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    Chris Howusu Well said@ Bob. She would have received more flak but for her age. I wish her the best during hers stay.
    

    Tuesday at 2:49pm · · 

    I think BOB PALITZ's comments pretty much summed it up, when he posted a comment to her post:

    
    

    Bob Palitz August 17, 2010 at 7:18AM

    Follow

    
    Well...as an NJ native who has lived in Ghana for almost 10 years, I can appreciate the culture shock Ms Wolk is experiencing. It doesn't seem as if she has traveled much so far. If she thinks a 767 is huge, wait until she experiences a 777 or 747.
    
    However...as an aspiring journalist, she does need to get on top of the need for research. She apparently is confusing "tarmac" (which is simply pavement) with "jetway" (which is the movable bridge many airports have that allow you to enter and leave a plane door directly into the terminal). Rest assured that when she descended the stairs upon arrival at Kotoka International Airport, she stepped onto tarmac.
    
    In my ten years here, I have never been served goat masquerading as beef. Why would they? Goat's very popular here and they sell it as goat, on the menu and in the markets. They don't taste at all alike.
    
    And while the electricity supply in Ghana has its erratic moments, it doesn't "run out" at 2 pm or at any particular time. In fact, it's better than you will find in most African countries.
    
    Let's hope Ms Wolk can get beyond her shock about differences in creature comforts and describe in a balanced way the experience she's having.
    
    Frankly, despite all these comments--many of which I sympathise with--I do not think we are going to see an end to platitudinous impressions about Ghana--let alone Africa. The proof of the experience clearly will be in the living. But I daresay, if more if us challenged these assumptions about Africa anytime and everywhere it appeared, we might have a better-balanced view of Africa.
    
    

    Here's to technology, Facebook, and the intelligentsia!;-))

Thank you, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC)!

At a time when consumers are shouting blue murder about tariff increases, it might strike one as odd that I'm advocating a praise!

I certainly have not forgotten the load management programme of 2006 that saw many Ghanaians rationing electricity, because of the over-dependence on Ghana's hydro-power at the Akosombo dam, which was running out. But I do not also forget the very helpful people at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC), who have been instrumental in maintaining some level of sanity when the lights went out.

Four years down the line, they continue to be as helpful as they always have been. There is one particular person by the name "Phillip", whose surname I do not know, who always does his very best to address any concerns about electricity.

Two days ago, the lights went off in our area--apparently, Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG)-- was doing unannounced maintenance on a tripped wire. I called PURC, on 0302.240.046 to speak with the same Phillip who said he would investigate for me, even if I had reported it to the ECG hotline on 0302.611.611.

He asked me to remind him of my phone number, which I did.

Within 10 minutes, he had called to let me know he had contacted the district engineer of my area, and that they were aware of a problem. They were not promising anything, but they would restore the lights shortly.

Around two hours later, the lights were back. I know as I got a text message from home.

Interestingly, the following morning, I greeted my desk with a call from PURC, wondering whether my lights came back the evening before!

If that is not efficiency, I don't know what is!

Enjoy your weekend and keep safe.

If you're in Ghana and your lights go off, please don't tell me you don't know what numbers to call on a weekday (from 9am to 16h30), and throughout the week!

It's PURC, then ECG Hotline on 0302.611.611.

When the BBC Worldservice Called from London...When in Accra

Let me get this straight. For the past few days, the BBC Africa Service has been travelling through the sub-region in a bus to get a feel of the so-called football fever in the run-up to the FIFA 2010 world cup in South Africa.

The "Africa Have Your Say" programme is live on air in Africa every Tuesday to Thursday. The "Africa Have Your Say" bus started off in Cote d'Ivoire, landed at the Western region of Ghana's capital--Takoradi--on Tuesday, Cape Coast on Wednesday, and landed in Accra on Thursday. They even had a live session of the programme yesterday looking at electricity provision

It is to that end that one Ishta Kutesa Nandi contacted me asking:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishta Kutesa
Date: 2010/6/3
Subject: Message via your Google Profile: Electricity in Ghana
To: ekbensah@gmail.com


Hello Emmanuel,

My name is Ishta and I'm contacting you from the BBC World Service in London. I've read quite a few of your blog posts and I find your views on utility provision in Ghana quite interesting. I'd love to talk to you about possibly taking part in a live debate we're holding this afternoon. Please reply with a phone number I can contact you on so that we can discuss this further.

Kind regards,
Ishta

So, after a response and exchange of emails, I got a call shortly after. We talked for some 15 minutes, in which she asked a whole host of questions and asked for some solutions that I see for the way forward:

1. the government should continue to invest in the old electricity sytstem, which has been under-invested for many years

2. the government should establish more sub-stations to cater for a rapidly-growing population

3. ghanaians should have at their disposal a FREE hotline--not one where you pay landline rates on a mobile!

4. we should be getting streetlights as every blessed customer pays for them

5. if Ghana can provide our neigbouring countries (Cote d'ivoire and Togo) with electricity, we ought to have regular provision HERE in Ghana!

Ishta was supposed to call back and help me make inputs into the live session, but I never got that call. I know a fellow blogger--Golda--who was there at the live session, but didn't hear her name on air.

Whatever the case, a few ghanablogging members got recognised--and for that I am happy. To be recognised by no less than the BBC on the issues that concern us most--electricity; streetlights; utility provision, etc--is the biggest boost anyone can get.

Never mind writing about our own lives...

Mid-Wk Madness: Am Still Waiting for My Streetlights!

Now, that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority announced 31 May that electricity has gone up by 89%, might we not finally sit up to protest for our streetlights?

A careful scrutiny of our electricity bill reveals that each and every blessed consumer pays an amount towards fire-fighting and street-lighting.

Bottom line: where are our streetlights?

This post is inspired by ACCRADAILYPHOTO.com's one here: http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2010/06/thanks-to-89-electricity-increase-i-can.html

Things Done in Accra When You're Dead...

Sometimes, when darkness falls, and the lights go off in parts of Accra, it is as if you're dead...to the world.

Even when you have alternative arrangements to obtaining power, the point is not lost on you on the astronomical amounts you expend to get your fridge and other electrical gadgets working through a generator.

Last Friday night at 23h30, the electricity went off our place and the next-door neighbour's. I know because when I went for a walk with Fenix, the houses on the lane--bar ours--had their lights on. A few houses on other lanes on the Estate had the generator running, so we could tell they were off.

That evening, I called the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on 021.611.611. They call it a hotline, but I would prefer a hotline that's free, thankyou!

Anyways, I got the usual Welcome to the ECG Hotline. Please hold for a service operator.

Within minutes, a young lad was behind the line asking me key questions about the time the electricity went off; the location of the query; and my name. All was explained, and he accordingly commiserated with me, apologising for the electricity having gone off, but they would work "as quickly" as they could to restore it, but they would have to register the case in their database and forward it to an engineer.

Thanks were exchanged and I went off, slightly assured.

I woke up Saturday morning to beads of sweat dripping down my face, for the electricity had not come back.

A quick call much later in the day, around midday, revealed that ECG had dispatched the engineer around 8.30am, and he was doing his rounds.

I was assured "by the end of the day", we would have our power.

The end of the day--read 6, 7, 8, 9 pm--came. There was still no electricity.

A frustrated yours truly called yet again expressing veiled anger and disappointment at the promises offered. Entreaties and commiserations were expressed by the hot line staff, pleading with me to hold on, and that they were working on it "seriously" for us.

"Look," I went on "is it because it has not affected the whole Estate that a good 24 hours, I would have to call to have someone check my electricity? What is going on? Is it because it is a holiday that the workers have also gone on holiday?"

The same supplication-apology-assurance formula followed true to form, and I subsequently calmed down.

The next day, I was at boiling point; if a thermometer had been by me, it might have exploded!

A poor lady got the end of my wrath, expressed through more harsh and stronger words than the above for some fifteen minutes. I eventually calmed down, and thanked her for understanding the urgency of my request, appealing almost to her that almost 36 hours of electricity was totally unacceptable.

An hour or two later, I spotted a van with workmen in blue overalls cruising surreptitiously down the lane. I informed the folks that I suspect ECG were only now attending to the problem.

On a bloody Sunday! And 36 hours later?

We all shrugged, chuckled, and silently hoped that Sunday would be the last night without electricity.

A couple of hours later, the electricity was restored.

I cannot say I had a relaxing Mayday celebration. Frankly, it sucked. There is precious little one can do without electricity.

It truly is like you're dead...to the world.

Great Idea ECG, Shame about the Delivery

The lights came back on to a quietly-jubilant neighbourhood around 5pm-ish, after a rather hellish couple of hours without it. All I can say is that whether you have a generator or not, the point is at a time when global prices have not gone southwards, lights off is a totally unnecessary enterprise.

So, when the saviour of Electricity Company of Ghana's call centre , which is an 18-hr operation that can be contacted at 021.611.611, advertised last week in the main daily GRAPHIC that it was going to service Ghanaians--albeit in Greater Accra and Tema for now--you had hope that they would do more than tell you a problem "has been reported" about the electricity. Which is exactly what the operator did this morning when it went off. They asked my name, making me feel instinctively that they would get back to me.

They didn't.

This is inconsistent with the staff of ECOBANK's call centre(toll-free), which has almost always gotten back to me on a query. Even the members of staff at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC) call you back after investigating an electricity complaint

Regrettably, it is attitudes like ECG's that perpetuate the myth that the private sector is everyone's saviour, whilst the public is red-tape driven.

At a time when the State is showing a resurgence even in the US, ECG better sit up fast!

_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO device

These words brought to you by Ogo.

Taxi Tales: "They are Killing Us!"

It has become an article of my quotidian walking diet to stop by the Spintex Road GOIL filling station to either pick a taxi, or walk home. Depending on my mood, I pick a taxi. Last night was no exception.

There was a slight difference in the usual silence that rings through from the filling station to my house some six minutes away from GOIL. Usually, I am so knackered, I allow myself to converse with my thoughts. Yesterday, the difference was in the mini-conversation I had with the taxi-driver after he said that I would be charged GHC1.20--instead of GHC1.00. He told me that yesterday was "the last day" he would be charging me that rate, which I found interesting, considering I have never seen him around that area before.

Oh well.

He went on to say that "they" were "killing us". I knew exactly whom he was talking about. Generally, he was referring to the government; specifically to the National Petroleum Authority that has, yet again, allowed Ghanaians to suffer and experience the vagaries of the fluctuation of oil prices on the market.

Joy Online, in its report put it this way:

This is the second time petroleum products prices have been adjusted in less than a month and the third since October 2007.

The Public Relations Officer of the NPA Steven Larbie tells Joy Business report that the reviews will no more be done monthly but according to price movements of crude oil on the world market.

What it means is that a gallon of petrol now sells at 4 Ghana cedis 68 pesewas or 46,800 cedis; while a gallon of diesel is 4 Ghana cedis 63 pesewas or 46,350 cedis

Putting these prices into context, you can understand why the consumers will have to pay the taxi-drivers. I have had quite a few tales of these over the past few days--and I really cannot blame them.

What I do think is extortionist is when the taxi-drivers decide, consequently, to offer arbitrary prices, knowing fully well that they are providing us with the service, and so without them, we cannot get to our destination!

Whatever the case may be, it's true, this government is killing the average consumer's disposable income.

That, on top of these high prices, one spends around GHC50.00 to buy the equivalent of electricity that would have taken me (before November 1st) almost three weeks for, now, just under two weeks!

From E[lectricity] C[ompany of] G[hana], With Love...

It's been quite a while since I went to ECG to buy electricity for our pre-paid meter. It was interesting to have gone there, to have demanded a sheet of the rates--only to be told that the list would be, in a few days, "archaic". I guess the ECG worker meant the rates would be obsolete, or redundant--but that's another story!

The real truth about ECG and all is that despite the fact that electricity has "stabilised" to a very large extent, rates have increased a good 35%. At least that's what Kwame Pianim--Chairman of Ghana's Public Utilities Regulatory Commission says.

Fred Sarpong, ICT correspondent and Senior writer for Business Week (who is also Public Relations Officer for the Ghana Association of Journalists in ICT maintains:

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has passed judgment and, surprisingly, tariffs for both electricity and water usage are going up again, this time by a steep 35%.

To be sure, both the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company must have presented strong arguments to the PURC; the Commission’s boss, Kwame Pianim had earlier declared that it would not approve increases of more than 20%.

The rising cost of oil must have played a part in the PURC’s change of mind. With the world market price for crude oil now at well over US$80 a barrel, the continuation of an inexorable upward rise started in 2005, the cost of producing and distributing utility services is certainly going up. Electricity generation in particular will be affected, especially as Ghana now relies more on oil-driven thermal power than at any other time in the country’s history.

Indeed, oil has a role to play--as does the "need" to pay "realistic prices". As someone who is not an economist, I still marvel at how government can claim that maintaining subsidies are untenable.


If people do not pay, I guess the utility providers ought to find stringent ways of "revenue mobilisation". Forget the fact that people want to have air-conditioners and use them to full capacity when there is little need, just make sure people pay for what they consume.

And now to prepaid electricity:

BOTSWANA

started it in 2000, and this is what one report wrote of the scheme:

Some 25 000 homes in Botswana are using the pre-payment metering system which was introduced by the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) in 1995

(...)

As there is no meter reading, the risk of human error on meter reading and the risk of estimated readings being used for billing are non-existent.

He said that there was no need to wait for an unknown bill from BPC, therefore, uncertainty was written off completely. Moreover, the system was comfortable and gives customers time to budget.

"The system involves the community in the selling of the tokens. It is aimed to be 24 hours facility in villages to enable people to buy the tokens at any time of the day.

http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20000125

INDIA

--they started it in 2003, and this is what one article said about the usage:

The country's largest private sector power utility, Tata Power Company, and the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board are thinking of introducing pre-paid cards for buying power modeled on similar cards in the telecom industry.

Says F A Vandrevala, managing director of Tata Power, "We are evaluating the issue internally but have not made any formal presentations to anyone on this. It is something we could look at on a national basis."

(...)



Home > Business > Business Headline > Report

Now, pre-paid electricity cards

Sunil Raj & S Ravindran in Mumbai | October 13, 2003 08:53 IST


The next time someone says pre-paid, don't just think of your mobile phone. Incredible as it may sound, the day may not be far off when pre-paid could be the lingua franca of power consumers as well.

The country's largest private sector power utility, Tata Power Company, and the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board are thinking of introducing pre-paid cards for buying power modeled on similar cards in the telecom industry.

Says F A Vandrevala, managing director of Tata Power, "We are evaluating the issue internally but have not made any formal presentations to anyone on this. It is something we could look at on a national basis."

The Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board could, however, be the first utility off the block. The chief engineer of the board, K C Jain, told Business Standard in Indore: "We are looking at introducing a pilot project and the state government is considering the proposal. Once, the clearances come through we will launch the scheme."

The Rs 200-250 crore (Rs 2-2.5 billion) project being contemplated by the MPSEB entails installing a pre-paid card in the consumers' meter board. The consumer will insert the pre-paid card in it like a floppy.

He will then be able to buy pre-paid cards from private power companies in three denominations: Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. This is proposed to be introduced first in Indore, a city that has the maximum domestic consumption of electricity in the state.

And how does the consumer know when his power supply is going to end? Once 95 per cent of the electricity that has been paid for is used up, the meter will begin to emit signals, so that the consumer can buy a new pre-paid card.

The meter will expel the used card immediately after it is fully used. The new card has to be inserted simultaneously if electricity supply is to continue.

But how does the consumer benefit? Instead of his earlier complaints of high electricity bills, he can now keep a tighter reign.

Second, consumers won't have to stand in serpentine queues to pay their bills. The pre-paid cards will be sold by private power companies to consumers. Then, of course, on the introduction of this system, consumers won't have to put down a security deposit.

(...)

India has witnessed huge power theft (transmission and distribution losses). A couple of years back state electricity boards recorded transmission and distribution losses of Rs 33,000 crore (Rs 330 billion). This could be one small way of combating the problem.

Pre-paid electricity cards have been around in Europe since the early 1990s


http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2003/oct/13power.htm?zcc=ar

Finally, there is an article from a Philippines website, in which both the Nigerian/South African experiences of pre-paid are referred to--and the virtues thereof extolled.

I think the writer sums it in one when he/she writes:

A financial manager worth his salt will see the advantages of a prepaid system a kilometer away: just imagine the cash flow benefits it brings, where payments for its service will be made up front, instead of being at the mercy of the traditional billings system. And we haven’t even considered the operational savings it will generate: from the manhours spent in printing the individual statements and distributing these to customers, to disconnecting lines when accounts are not paid by due date
http://planet.naga.gov.ph/2007/06/29/those-casureco-ii-prepaid-meters

To conclude, the evidence is out there--you only need to go and look. Far be it for me to trump Kwami Pianim, whom, in my view, is too neo-liberal a boss for a regulatory agency. This is what I wrote of him in November 2006:

However – and in Ghana, there is always a challenge to grapple with – utility tariffs have gone up.

I cannot for the life of me understand the underpinning logic of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) Chairman, Mr.Pianim, claiming that “tariff adjustments will help ease the intense pressure on the national kitty.”

Check this: Pianim is Chairman of a regulatory utilities commission and he speaks like a free-market man, who believes that competition in the industry is the best way for Ghana’s water and electricity. Just because the government allowed themselves to be hood-winked by the over-balance of perceived "efficiency" of the private sector in water[Rand, water], he believes the same can be applied for electricity?

What type of vision is this by a CHAIRMAN of a utilities regulator?

Besides, the logic is flawed: multinational companies are more interested in the efficiency of service delivery than the raising of tariffs, for the sake of it. You can raise the rates all you want, yet when the capital—not to mention the country—experiences sporadic electricity supply as evidenced by my rant last week, when I opined last week that Accra is "in the dark ages", which company is going to be interested in investing in that sort of shoddy and egregious service?
http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/11/as-week-drew-to-close-in-accra_06.html

At least, you've gotta give it to him that he's consistent!

On a more serious note, we know the evidence: there's a lot of pre-paid metred houses in the country, and to that end, ECG is getting a lot of money. Why not make pre-paid metres de rigeur, and avoid having to raise tariffs by a good 35%? I'll end with what I wrote way back in February this year, because I cannot think of any appropriate manner to end this sordid tale:

Finally, it just struck my little brain that there are a number of pre-paid electricity meters in estates all over the country. Now, in order to avoid MDAs taking advantage and wasting precious ECG service, might it not be a good idea to remove them from metred electricity onto pre-paid ones, where they would pay upfront?
http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2007/02/darkness-falls-3-purc-talks-how-ghana.html

Whilst we are ruminating over those questions, might we not think about encouraging ECG to move away from a pitiful page on the Ministry of Energy website to a fully-fledged one like the PURC?!!!

As the Week Opens in Accra: Thoughts on...Championing Who'sExcellence?

DCFC0305
Originally uploaded by ekbensah.

'We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity. We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.'




I’ve been walking a lot lately--mainly from work at East Legon to the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange, where I catch a tro-tro to the Spintex Road. When I walk, it humbles me, and in walking, I get the opportunity to observe many things in Accra: the stench of the open gutters; the unsafe 207 BENZ buses that ply the Ghanaian routes; the largely-uneducated masses of men who, once in the city, opt to become taxi drivers, vulcanisers—or worse.

Ghana is 50, yet we have an energy crisis when we shouldn’t. Let’s face it, though: energy problems are not unique to this country, for in 2006, Europe suffered blackouts, prompting the EU to factor energy as a key challenge and policy area for its burgeoning 27-member EU.

In Ghana, we have just resumed the load-shedding management programme, which started Thursday—some days after Ghana@50 dignitaries left.

If there are any lessons to be learnt from our former colonizers—the Brits—where Kufuor is sojourning for the next couple of days on the invitation of the Queen of England for a state visit, it is maintaining and retaining any culture of excellence that Ghana might have, as well as possessing a visceral disgust for mediocrity.


Had this energy crisis afflicted the UK, heads would have rolled, and incumbent Minister of Energy—Joseph Adda—would have been forced to resign. It would not just have been the opposition that would have called for it, but the buoyant and vibrant press, including the inimitable tabloids, such as the Sun.

Today, in Ghana, our opposition – seriously ineffectual and uninterested in moving the nation forward talks the talk, and occasionally walks…out of Parliament – for posturing sake.

I wonder how far this is excellence in the making.

Streetlights stand on the Spintex road – have done for a month now – and nobody has publicly questioned why commuters and drivers alike ply dark roads in the evening, and at night.


We are known for our peaceful and pacific disposition. I sometimes wonder whether our attitude is not just passive and pathetic.

Nkrumah talked about an "African personality" -- about the African, when given a chance, doing things for himself – when he blazed the trail for Ghana and Africa fifty years ago.

Ghanaians must not, and cannot afford to, disappoint the dreams of that great visionary.

,

Darkness Falls in Accra (3): PURC Talks: How Ghana Govt is Compounding Consumer's Problems; Ghana Chocolate Day!

Earlier this morning, I called home – only to be told that the electricity had gone off around 9am. It was then 11am. I decided to call the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), and spoke to Grace [name changed to protect the innocent] of June 2006 fame, when I first blogged about it here.

I wondered why the electricity was so sporadic, and was informed that they were working on changing the transformers that feed electricity into Spintex road parts and beyond. Puzzled, I quizzed her as to why despite the initial announcement on the radio, ECG could not simply announce on the radio (and elsewhere) that there would be intermittent outages so that citizens could prepare themselves.

She promised to speak with the district engineer of ECG in that area. One thing lead to another and I got to questioning her on why despite the every-five-day-outage of 12 hours, this outage was happening in the first place. She explained that government owes the electricity company some ç300bn!

I have seen news of this in the dailies, but have, regrettably, not been able to get it on-line. Either way, I queried further, and she revealed that the so-called MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) had run their bills to that tune. Instead of the Ministry of Finance (which receives the bill) issuing the payment, it is stuck there!

In any event, she was displeased with the fact that the tariffs, which had been proposed had been dismissed by the government, ostensibly in order to continue absorbing it. I remember that upon reading this last year ( http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:xSqEw_Lo37YJ:www.ghananewstoday.com/gnt_NewsContribute.cfm%3Findexnumber%3D2437+%22purc%22:ghananewstoday.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3, I was a bit mad that the Chairman of the PURC, Pianim, would want to have an adjustment. I would still disagree that an adjustment to attract investors is woefully wrong approach to energy policy. Rather, an adjustment to ensure that those who can afford it pay for electricity is better.

That said, a comprehensive thinking-through is needed, and dare-I-say-it, a referendum on an issue as important as this. A referendum, though, is something that seems anathema, or alien, to government policy, so I don’t foresee any of it happening here soon. However, our journalists could be discussing this in greater depth, and leaving the unnecessary discussion of politics to those who should be politicking—the politicians!

I suspect Grace was telling the truth, if this report on Myzongo.com news is anything to go by:

The Tema Regional Directorate of the Electricity Company of Ghana is replacing its obsolete equipment at the cost of 15 million US dollars to curb the intermittent power outage experienced in the City.

Addressing a Press Conference in Tema, the Regional Director, Dr Nicholas Smart-Yeboah said the amount is generated from the company’s own internally generated funds.

He said it is expected that work on the rehabilitation of the equipment would be completed in August this year to enable customers enjoy uninterrupted power supply.

I finally asked about the so-called Charter whose aim is to protect consumers and compensate them for lost energy (and water). Grace suggested that that would probably be ready by the middle of the year. Fingers crossed!

Oh yeah, as it's Val's day today, let me wish you a happy Chocolate day, too, as it is -- for the first time ever -- Ghana "Chocolate Day". A great article you can read here on fair trade chocolate.

Finally, it just struck my little brain that there are a number of pre-paid electricity meters in estates all over the country. Now, in order to avoid MDAs taking advantage and wasting precious ECG service, might it not be a good idea to remove them from metred electricity onto pre-paid ones, where they would pay upfront?

Darkness Falls in Accra(2), But Regulatory Commission Responds

Ghana's flagship regulatory commission, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) is no stranger to this blog--neither are complaints of darkness falling in the capital contemporraneously associated with what I have described as execrable service delivery by Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

If that all sounds heavy-handed to you, you might like to reflect a bit on the fact that yesterday evening, for no apparent reason--or so it seemed--lights went off around 9.30pm, whilst we were in the middle of watching All that Glitters on TV3. How we were unamused!

When the electricity came back on, it was around 11.50pm, just as Tv3's Gardener's Daughter was at a stage when it was exciting;-)

Seriously speaking, I called that evening to be told that there was -- yet again -- "a fault" and that the ECG people were on their way to the estates. That was around 9.45pm. Must have been a long trip for them to have taken a good two and a half hours to fix the problem, when they have experienced it many a time!

Anger and frustration aside, I contacted PURC this afternoon, on account of the fact that they had switched the lights off at 5.50am this morning. When I called my parents around 3.05pm, it was still off!

Philip, of PURC, contacted me around 3.22pm to tell me that a conductor was broken and that they were on it. This was after having called me at 3.17pm to tell me that he was trying to get in touch with them. He assured me electricity should be back on around 4.30pm. I have yet to call, but I suspect by time I get home around 6.30pm, it should have been restored;-) Fingers crossed!

tags:
accra; ghana purcghana electricity

As the Week Drew to a Close in Accra: Thoughts on Spintex Traffic; Utility Prices; Lessons of Belgian Energy Liberalisation for Ghana

DCFC0646
Originally uploaded by ekbensah.

It was polo immunization week, and as a result, as I heard on Tv3 evening news on 31 October, there was not going to be any load shedding (read: "of the scale there has been").

In any event, I cannot help but wonder whether the load-shedding exercise is not one too many, having outlived its usefulness. First, the holiday of 23rd October was granted a load-management-free day by the government. Now, this: a good four or five days, where electricity won’t go off for 12 hours.

The mind boggles.

Suffice-to-say, uncharacteristically, there have been some positive developments lately than anticipated:

traffic is flowing better on the famed spintex road, where scales of the bottleneneck level of last week is being scuppered by the deployment of more police in “strategic” points that have the tendency to cause traffic, and therefore need regular and consistent monitoring and direction by traffic police.

petrol prices have gone down, albeit marginally

However – and in Ghana, there is always a challenge to grapple with – utility tariffs have gone up.

I cannot for the life of me understand the underpinning logic of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) Chairman, Mr.Pianim, claiming that “tariff adjustments will help ease the intense pressure on the national kitty.”

Check this: Pianim is Chairman of a regulatory utilities commission and he speaks like a free-market man, who believes that competition in the industry is the best way for Ghana’s water and electricity. Just because the government allowed themselves to be hood-winked by the over-balance of perceived "efficiency" of the private sector in water[Rand, water], he believes the same can be applied for electricity?

What type of vision is this by a CHAIRMAN of a utilities regulator?

Besides, the logic is flawed: multinational companies are more interested in the efficiency of service delivery than the raising of tariffs, for the sake of it. You can raise the rates all you want, yet when the capital—not to mention the country—experiences sporadic electricity supply as evidenced by my rant last week, when I opined last week that Accra is "in the dark ages", which company is going to be interested in investing in that sort of shoddy and egregious service?

My sentiments are further buttressed by the case of my surrogate home, Belgium, where the energy sector is about to be liberalized as of 1 January 2007. I sent a note to my colleagues about this development the other day:

Energie

Comparez les prix avant d’agir

Uccle

La ministre bruxelloise de
l’Energie, Evelyne Huytebroeck,
a invité les consommateurs
bruxellois à ne pas se précipiter
dans le choix de leur fournisseur
de gaz et d’électricité,
deux secteurs dont la libéralisation
interviendra, pour l’ensemble
des particuliers, le 1r janvier
prochain.

As liberalisation takes off 1 January 2007, the Minister of Energy has at least set the stage such that Belgians have a fair idea of what they are getting their heads into. Liberalization will enable them to choose a gas or electricity provider, and there is a website (http://www.brugel.be) which enables Belgians to choose provider.

There is even a free brochure being worked on and a free number for those who have queries…

Undoubtedly, not to forget countervailing measures and pressures against liberalization, our Ghanaian counterparts could learn some serious lessons from micromanaging an already-bad situation!

From: http://www.tbx.be/fr/07.02/Archives/app.rvb?date=2006-11-02

A family friend back in Belgium, whom I also copied this, wrote back saying that associated with this liberalization, will be the Suez-owned Electrabel, which is Belgium’s premier electricity provider, no longer providing the meters for the electricity reading, but it being delegated to "an independent meter reading company."

Furthermore, it transpired that one of the companies that are waiting to jump onto the liberalization bandwagon has said this:

“Alexander Dewulf, the CEO of the Belgium branch of Dutch multinational Nuon, says "we will not be present in Brussels because of risks relating to unpaid bills." (from: http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=33819)

All part of the juicy package of privatization.

Don’t you just love it when companies accentuate profit over the people?

I have a sneaky suspicion that what’s happening in Western Europe is bound to happen in even more pernicious ways in countries of Africa if they’re not mindful of the dogmatic and Pavlovian response to the posse that come with deregulation, privatization and liberalization, without adequate and sufficient regulation.

Suffice-to-say, though, that Belgium Energy Minister, Evelyne Huytebroeck (Greens), has mitigated things to the effect that she is emphatic about “not yield[ing] to pressure from the energy supply industry” (from: http://www.vrtnieuws.net/nieuwsnet_master/versie2/english/details/061019_energy/index.shtml
)
Her stance is this:

"We'll go ahead with the liberalisation of the energy market anyway. If the utility companies don't want to supply domestic customers they won't be able to carry on supplying firms. The licence to supply energy applies to both domestic and commercial customers"

tags
accra;ghana news;ghana belgium;
ghana energy;

Darkness Falls in Accra (1)

Accra is in the Dark Ages.

Ever since the load-shedding started, the country’s electricity provider ECG, has decided to ride on the back of the "load management programme" by continuing to deliver increasingly execrable service.

Yesterday, on an evening that was not supposed to experience load-shedding at 6pm, the lights went out, eliciting a collective sigh of resignation and frustration all-rolled-in-one. Calls were made, and it transpired that there was "a fault" in one of the stations near the motorway of Tema. Later, I found out that it wasn’t quite near the motorway, but somewhere around Tema. Not to mention the lack of consistency in the lies (you don’t even know where the genesis of the so-called fault is?) but to buttress all that is the frustration associated with feeling the lights will come on soon when you call, only to find out that the problem has not finished being worked on!


So it was that I would call around 7pm, only to be told that by 9pm, it would return. Dinner came and dinner went among intermittent sounds of generators in the silence, and we still experienced no power. By 10pm, my family and I were too tired to do anything, and so sleep overcame us not too long after that.

Suffice to say, my habitual evening walk with my pet dog, Fenix, revealed an estate engulfed in darkness, with a few generators left and right thundering into the night…and through out it.

Without a doubt, mosquitoes that work in the night had a field day, but I couldn’t help wondering who was truly bleeding us dry: the mosquitoes – or Electricity Company of Ghana?!

tags:
accra; ghana;mosquitoes;darkness ghana;ghana electricity;ghana ECG;

This Gargantuan Dam Provides Ghana with Electricity...

IMG_0092
Originally uploaded by ekbensah.

...and has been doing so since independence from the British in 1957, when the first President Dr.Kwame Nkrumah built it to power electricity throughout the country.

Ghana is, in effect, a hydro-dependent state, predicating its energy survival on rainfall into the dam that is generated into electricity. Currently, we supply electricity to some of our West African neighbours of Togo and Benin, whilst buying some of it from Cote d'Ivoire (according to engineer who spoke on the Accra-based English-speaking private radio station CITI 97.3FM) this morning.

However, as from 28 August--yesterday--the country has been compelled to undergo what Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Volta Regional Authority (VRA) [that supervises/manages the distribution of electricity in the country's Eastern Region] call "National Shedding" Programme.

Although it is expected that rains will fall in the country, the rainfall expected this cool season (July-October) has been very little as compared to the earlier months, where there were thunderstorms almost twice a week in the country (April-June)

The equation is: no rain = no electricity. Therefore, by putting domestic consumers on this "load management" programme, where the capital--divided into six zones--will experience electricity black-outs from 6am-6pm, and 6pm-6am respectively every other third day, energy will be saved for the next fifteen days.

If and when the rain falls in abundance -- as per the season 'requirements' -- the exercise may be postponed. Until then Ghanaian media has been carrying it. One of them you can read here: http://www.ghananewstoday.com/gnt_cn_detailb_featured.cfm?tblNewsCatID=51&tblNewsID=1456&CFID=188447&CFTOKEN=76004271

I understand that the last time something like this was in 1998. It's been a good eight years! Where was the foresight to avert an inconvenience of this magnitude?!!


tags: Akosombo; Ghana electricity crisis; Ghana electricity; Ghana rain; Accra; Accra electricity;