ECG Takes Big Step in Hohoe, Inaugurates a Multi-Million Cedi Station

By Antoinette Herrmann-Condobrey

An upgraded electricity primary substation worth millions of Ghana cedis (GHC 15,200,000) has been inaugurated in Hohoe by Electricity Company of Ghana.

The project, fully funded by ECG, is in fulfillment of the company’s efforts at improving power supply in the Hohoe area.  

Over the decades, as demand for power supply in Hohoe rose, service got poorer. Transformers went off frequently, currents went low, ECG routinely shut down power, and that was even before the current national energy problem set in.  

With a new transformer capacity of 40 MVA, Hohoe’s rehabilitated station is expected

to serve a host of communities stretching beyond its municipality to as far as Dambai.

Togbega Gabusu VI, Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area, who was present at the inauguration, was full of gratitude.

The paramount chief however expressed some concerns in an interview with Gbi Viwo: The lack of consideration for community members when companies such as ECG in Hohoe have openings for hiring. “We give them the land to build on and they operate in our town, so it is unacceptable to ignore community members when job opportunities present themselves,” he emphasized.

To make things worse, ECG without any negotiations, takes over ownership of utility poles funded and erected by private individuals who desperately needed power supply to their homes. Twenty-four hours after the company supplies them with power, the citizens lose ownership of the poles. One person can fund and erect as many as six poles to qualify his/her place for power supply, the paramount chief laments. 

Gabusu does not think the taking over of utility poles itself should be a problem. It is the lack of reimbursement for these defenseless private citizens by Electricity Company of Ghana that is the issue. Where in ECG’s customer agreement form is that requisition law stated, he asks. 

Nevertheless, the traditional head is thankful for this "laudable" effort by ECG in Hohoe and continues to count on a healthy relationship between the company and the community. 

Antoinette Herrmann-Condobrey is a journalist / digital media and communication professional. She specializes in political communication, digital media and arts and culture, from Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts, and Ghana Institute of Journalism. Herrmann-Condobrey is the editor of The Gbi Voice.