Pay Utility Bills From IGF – Terkper To Universities

The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper is arguing that public universities in the country be made to bear the cost of their own utility bills.

According to him, most of the institutions generate enough funds internally from events organised using the school’s electricity which government eventually pays for.

Mr. Tekper said ‘we all know commercial activities including executive programmes that are taking place on the campuses including conferences that are organised between holidays and they make good profits when they rent the spaces out for events’ Mr. Tekper argued.

Meanwhile a former student leader and now Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has also endorsed calls for tertiary students to bear the cost of utility, saying that is ‘the way to go.’

This comes on the back of concerns raised by tertiary students who say they will resist moves by government to make them pay utility bills.

A number of tertiary institutions owe the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) millions of cedis due to government’s inability to promptly pay for the services rendered.

Recently, ECG was forced to disconnect power to some schools in an attempt to retrieve their monies.