Since the beginning of the 2015/2016 academic year, it’s not strange to hear the sounds of what seems to be a set of birds chirping from hostels and homestels at Ayeduase, Kotei, and New Site serving mainly students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
The newly installed ECG prepaid meters in those areas do not chirp only at dawn, where we are used to but could decide to chirp all day, anytime they feel they have to be fed. The issue is not only how they are going to be fed, but the source of their feed.
Students who reside in these areas were welcomed this academic year to the installation of prepaid meters in almost every hostel and homestel where they would have to buy their own prepaid units and load them on the system anytime the prepaid units are very low or exhausted.
In the past, hostel managers had their own way of billing students the seemingly appropriate electricity charges as some took some money at the end of the month or fixed an estimated amount in the hostel charges for the year.
Students welcomed this new arrangement with mixed feelings because they were this time round going to be able to monitor their electricity consumption and know the right amount they are supposed to pay. The other side being that students who use items like electric burners, and play games and use other gadgets would not get the opportunity to enjoy their use as they used to.
The downside to this development has become a major concern for students. Anytime the prepaid meters have exhausted the units, students have to move from Ayeduase or Kotei to Kentinkrono or Asokwa to buy units for their prepaid meters while there is a prepaid outlet in Ayeduase which does not have the facility to feed the new cards with prepaid units. This has caused inconvenience for many students who now have to move to Kentinkrono or Asokwa to buy the units.
In a short interview with students living around these areas, many expressed their views on this frustrating situation. “I do not know why the ECG vending station here at Ayeduase does not have this facility yet, it’s high time they made arrangements to provide them with one. We are suffering to get the prepaid units t and the noise from the meters disturbs us a lot,” Eunice of Thy Kingdom Come Hostel lamented.
Richard, a final year student residing at Kotei said: “My hostel potter now charges GH¢5.00 for transportation when one needs to buy credit just because we can’t buy from the ECG vending station closest to us.”
Students are not happy about the current situation and thus are appealing to the ECG and hostel managers to ensure the ECG prepaid units vending station at Ayeduase is equipped to serve their needs.
