Features
ECG, GWCL et al…
Mr Clifford-Braimah GWCL boss
I am uncomfortable writing about utilities in our country, not because they perform above average, but because no one listens when Ghanaian consumers complain. My understanding is that wherever there is a monopoly, consumer’s voices do not resonate.
One beautiful Saturday morning two and a half months ago about half a dozen young men came to my residence with meters, cables and tools claiming they were contracted by our almighty ECG to change my meter and that of my Landlord’s.
Of course, they were in ECG identifiable apparel, but I asked them why they would replace a perfectly working meter. They said they were acting on orders. I realized they were small fishes in the scheme of things, but I still had a few questions for them. I had over 350 cedis worth of credit on my meter; their response was that it would be credited on to the new meter.
We were to go to the ECG office the very next Monday to have our new status regularised and that they had a token credit of 30 cedis on the new meter. Fifty cedis should be paid on the Monday and the token 30 cedis would be deducted leaving a credit balance of 20 cedis.
On Monday I sent an emissary to the ECG offices at Dansoman with the fifty cedis. He returned with no receipt but with a message that I would receive a call after the regularization was completed. Two and a half months down the line I have not been called and my credit of over 350 cedis has not been restored.
Dear reader, please note that I am not alone in this dilemma. Almost all customers in my general area have a similar tale to narrate. I spoke to one official at Dansoman ECG who was quite concerned and tried to help but later reported a sluggish system. Up till today, the ECG has done nothing to fix this problem. Honestly, I feel deceived and robbed as do the other customers.
But for the benevolence of a press next door whose standby generator gives me power, I would have been in total darkness. Why a utility provider as ECG would treat its customers with such contempt beats my mind.
I watched a news item two week ago where officials of ECG were on a crusade dubbed, “Fix the bill, pay the bill” targeted at postpaid clients and all I did was laugh my head off. I can bet my bottom pesewa that this will amount to nothing.
An ECG that cannot fix issues with prepaid meters trying to fix postpaid ones? The ECG should cut through the chase.
Now, I was told to contact a vendor to purchase power without any assurance that I would get my ‘stolen’ credit back. I duly contacted the vendor who told me to send her my new meter’s details, which I did. After that she sent me a Momo number to make payment to. I paid up and got a printed receipt, but it took the whole day before the mechanism of this new purchase was explained to me.
How do I and other clients get our credits back? Mr. Boateng and his Public Relations Directorate have a duty to tell me and other customers what is going on. We need answers.
GWCL
Water, we are told is life. True as this saying is, water can also be the end of life, a lack of it, that is. I would not want to be in the shoes of those managing the Ghana Water Company Limited. Theirs is an arduous task, especially at a time that rains have come in torrents and breaching storage limits.
I wonder how the GWCL is able to turn the cyanide poisoned and Galamsey induced carnage of some water bodies into drinkable water. But these attacks on our water bodies is no excuse for the day-to-day erratic water supply to certain communities on a regular basis.
At times announcements are made after the taps have stopped flowing. When these technical issues arise, would it not be prudent to contract water tankers to the affected communities to sell water to the people? I think every utility provider should make provisions for situations likely to cause discomfort to their customers.
The days where state institutions pander to the whims and caprices of the political class must be put in the dustbin of history if this country is to move forward. Successive governments have only paid lip-service to the destructive activities of Galamsey and its operators.
The discourse on Galamsey is as murky as the colour of the rivers under siege. Our politicians are busy arguing about who had or has a better fight against the menace while farmlands get degraded, forest covers destroyed and people’s concern is how to make money.
The management of GWCL must be courageous to tell the powers that be in the face of how much destruction the nation’s water resources have been subjected to if they have not done so already. Those running our affairs must know the buck stops at their table and the responsibility is theirs to save us, else they have failed in their duty to the country.
NCA
As a journalist I have interest in how the media space performs. I read newspapers, I listen to radio and watch television on a daily basis. Personally, I rate social media as a junkyard where one has to be careful in navigating. Mind you, not everything you find on a refuse dump is trash.
I am told that it is the National Communication Authority (NCA) that has the power to grant licences for the operation of radio and television in Ghana. What I am not too sure of is whether, as done by our Electoral Commission that creates constituencies by population density, the NCA gives licences based on the same principle.
I have this concern because the NCA seems to give out licenses like confetti. Take the Greater Accra Region, for example: a Region that is only 3,245 square kilometers in total land space, there are over sixty frequency modulated (FM) radio stations. Can the NCA tell me what accounts for this? Not only that, some of the frequencies are so close that one can feel intrusion into some of the channels by others.
Does the NCA only consider what the prospective entrepreneur has to pay to them as application fee or these licenses are given on political patronage. Media organizations, not state-owned, subsist on advertising revenue. This also is predicated on the buoyancy of the economy. Does the NCA factor these in their decisions?
Does the NCA bother whether or not some of these media houses are struggling to remain afloat in the very tight advertising space, or once they give out the licenses, these stations are on their own? Let us not forget about television stations almost equal in number.
Whatever good intentions inform this mass pluralisation of radio and television, the numbers are staggering and have the potential to collapse the industry in the long run since other applications for license are in the queue.
We recall that Ghanaians have a sickening penchant for towing the line of doing what one person has done en masse. Remember the days of Soace-to-Space when everyone got a garden umbrella and a cellphone and was in business. This was after the phenomenon of Communication Centers. This is history now.
Where do we go from when media organisations begin to fold up? Meanwhile, our Ministry of Communication has introduced policies that stifle the growth of the operators, especially in the television subsector. In my estimation, proprietors of media houses have a bleak number of days going forward.
I will get to content and professionalism in a later episode.
Post Script: This column takes a very short break.
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
Attention-Deficit or Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often mistaken for laziness or indiscipline. In consulting rooms across Accra and in reports from school teachers, the pattern repeats: children who are bright but forgetful, parents who feel helpless, teachers who see incompleteness.
Research is clear-Barkley (2015) and others describe ADHD as a difference in the brain’s regulation of alertness, impulse and working memory, not a lack of effort.
The family’s role begins with structure. Regular sleep, predictable meal and homework times, and a simple visual list (uniform → books → water → corridor) provide the external scaffolding of these children need. Praise what is completed—“You opened the book and wrote the first sentence”-instead of rebuking what is missing.
Schools can help by seating the child front-row and centre, giving short written plus verbal instructions, allowing brief movement breaks, using quiet nonverbal cues and, where possible, grading effort and method as well as neatness. These adjustments reduce conflict and raise submission rates without lowering standards.
Couples and caregivers should share roles: one grounds, one pivots, and both protect rest. Shame-“bad parenting, bad child”-needs replacing with fact: different wiring, needs scaffolding.
Outcomes improve not by promises of perfection but by daily routines, clear limits and warmed connection. One homework slot kept, one instruction chunked, one calm repair after blurting-these small wins shift the family climate and let the child be seen beyond the label.
Resource
• CPAC (award-winning Mental Health and Counselling Facility): 0559850604 / 0551428486
Source: REV. COUNSELLOR PRINCE OFFEI’s insights on special needs support, relationships, and mental health in Ghana. He is a leading mental health professional, lecturer, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, renowned author, and marriage counsellor at COUNSELLOR PRINCE & ASSOCIATES CONSULT (CPAC COUNSELLOR TRAINING INSTITUTE) – 0551428486 /0559850604.
WEBSITES:
https://princeoffei22.wixsite.com/author
https://princeoffei22.wixsite.com/website
After two weeks of hectic activity up north, I drove to the Tamale airport, parked the car at the Civil Aviation car park as usual, paid the usual parking fee and boarded the plane for Accra.
Over the last two weeks, I had shuffled between three sites where work was close to completion.
One was a seed warehouse, where farmers would come and pick up good quality maize, sorghum and other planting material.
The other was a health facility for new mothers, where they were given basic training on good nutrition and small scale business.
And the third was a set of big boreholes for three farming communities.
The projects usually ran on schedule, but a good deal of time was spent building rapport with the local people, to ensure that they would be well patronised and maintained.
It was great to be working in a situation where one’s work was well appreciated. But it certainly involved a lot of work, and proactivity. And I made sure that I recorded updates online before going to bed in the evening.
When the plane took off, my mind shifted to issues in Accra, the big city. The young guys at my office had done some good work. They had secured five or six houses on a row in a good part of the city, and were close to securing the last.
When we got this property, unusually, Abena greeted them casually, and appeared to be comfortable in the guy’s company.
I was quite disappointed to hear that, because until the last few weeks, it seemed as if Abena and I were heading in a good direction. Apart from the affection I had for her, I liked her family. I decided to take it easy, and allow things to fall in whatever direction.
Normally I would take a taxi to her house from the airport, and pick her up to my place. This time I went to my sisters’ joint, where they sat by me while I enjoyed a drink and a good meal.
“So Little Brother,” Sister Beesiwa said, “what is it we are hearing about our wife-to-be?”
“When did you conclude that she was your wife-to-be? And what have you heard? I’ve only heard a couple of whispers. Ebo and Nana Kwame called to say that they have seen her in the company of—”
“Well said Little Brother,” Sister Baaba said. “By the way, Nana Kwame called an hour ago to ask if you had arrived because he could not reach you. Someone had told him that Jennifer had boasted to someone that she had connected Abena to a wealthy guy who would take care of her.”
I was beginning to understand. For some time, Abena had been asking me what work I was doing up north, and after I had explained it to her, she kept asking. So I think Jennifer fed her with false stories about me in order to get her to move to the Ampadu guy. Jennifer must have been well compensated for her efforts.
“In that case,” Sister Beesiwa said, “you should be glad that Abena is out of your way. She is easily swayed. Anyone who would make a relationship decision based on a friend’s instigation lacks good sense. I hope the guy is as wealthy as they say?”
“Who gets wealthy running a supermarket chain in Ghana?” Sister Baaba said. “Our supermarkets sell mostly imported products. Look at the foreign exchange rate. And remember that Ghanaians buy second-hand shoes and clothes. Supermarkets are not good business here. Perhaps they are showing off that they are wealthy, but in reality they are not doing so well.”
“Amen to that,” I said. “I’m beginning to understand. For some time, Abena had been asking me what work I was doing up north, and after I had explained it to her, she kept asking. So I think Jennifer fed her with false stories about me in order to get her to move to the Ampadu guy. Jennifer must have been well compensated for her efforts.”
She said that David Forson was only an agricultural extension worker in the north who did not have the resources to take care of a beautiful girl like her. And apart from being wealthy, the guy comes from an influential family, so Abena had done much better leaving a miserable civil servant like you for him.
“Amen to that,” I said. “I’m beginning to understand. For some time, Abena had been asking me what work I was doing up north, and after I had explained it to her, she kept asking. We would be able to sell all five houses to one big corporate customer, and we had already spoken to a property dealer who was trying to find a buyer in order to get a good commission.
That was going to be my biggest break. I had asked the boys to look for a large tract of land on the outskirts of the city where we could develop our own set of buildings, blocks of storey houses and upscale apartments. Things were going according to plan, and I was quietly excited. However, things were not going so well regarding my relationship with Abena.
My buddies Ebo and Nana Kwame had called to say that they met Abena and her friend Jennifer enjoying lunch with a guy, and Ebo believed that Jennifer was ‘promoting’ an affair between Jennifer and the guy. They were of the view that the promotion seemed to be going in the guy’s favour, because only an agricultural extension worker in the north who did not have the resources to take care of a beautiful girl like her.
And apart from being wealthy, the guy comes from an influential family, so Abena had done much better leaving a miserable civil servant like you for him.
“As I’ve already said, I will stop by her place, but I will mind my own business from now. Hey, let’s talk family. How are our parents? And my brothers-in-law? And my nephews and nieces? Why don’t we meet on Sunday? I’m going to drop my bags at my place, and go to see Mama and Dad.”
