Last September, Alex Ofori, a young man from Bobikuma near Swedru, gained widespread attention on social media for sharing his aspirations of success, inspired by businessman Ibrahim Mahama.
The viral video, initially posted by blogger @iambigcedi, caught the eye of Ibrahim Mahama, who instructed his aide Rafik Mahama to reach out to Ofori for mentoring.
Recently, Ofori had the opportunity to meet his mentor, Ibrahim Mahama, at his office.
Now, Rafik Mahama has updated on Ofori’s progress, stating that he is receiving mentorship in construction and mining.
Ofori, who joined in October last year, is now part of a team of trainee engineers working on projects nationwide under Ibrahim Mahama’s E&P firm.
Rafik Mahama shared these details in response to public interest sparked by @iambigcedi’s post in 2023, highlighting Ofori’s journey from a struggling youth to a mentored individual on a path to success.
The terrible condition of the roads from Akyem Oda to Agona Swedru has drawn criticism from commuters and drivers.
According to a report by rainbowradioonline, the locals allege that the terrible situation only became worse when the contractor departed the site, which resulted in a number of problems, including damage to their vehicles.
Expressing their concern, some of the drivers lamented, “This road gives us problems a lot. Every second, we take our cars to the shop. We take our cars to shop three times a week.”
“From Swedru to Akroso is an hour’s journey, but because of the nature of the road, we take three hours when travelling,” they added.
They urged the authorities to request the contractor to temporarily flatten the road as it was causing damage to their vehicles.
The poor road conditions were said to be discouraging tourists from visiting the Big Tree tourism spot in Aprokumasi in the Eastern region, and many were opting not to return or recommend the location to others.
Rather than waiting until an election year to address their pressing concerns, commuters implored the government to contact the contractor to complete the road and express their dissatisfaction with the uncomfortable road conditions.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has ordered the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to pay compensation to its customers affected by its prepayment system across the country from September to early October, this year.
This follows the failure in ECG Prepayment vending System at Volta, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw andTafo among other locations.
To demonstrate good customer service, the commission has asked ECG to pay lifeline customers GH¢15, residential customers with 10 penalty units equivalent GH¢120; non-residential customers with 20penalty units equivalent GH¢240; commercial customers with 40penalty units equivalent GH¢480 and industrial customers with 100 penalty units equivalent GH¢1,200.
Dr Ishmael Ackah in a statement issued and signed and copied to Ghanaian Times in Accra on Tuesday said the ECG would pay the compensation in the form of a one-time electricity credit from last Saturday to Friday October 7, 2022 with the compensation clearly indicated on customer receipts.
“ECG shall issue widespread notifications to inform customers of the compensation due to them and shall maintain accurate records of measures taken to comply with this order including the number of temporary staff engaged (if any), for purposes of regulatory monitoring,” he stated.
“This order is without prejudice to any additional directives the Commission may issue with respect to the incident,” he added.
Dr Ackah noted that the order was issued under sections 11 and 12 (1) and (2) of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission Act, 1997 (Act 538); and regulations 41 and 45 of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (Consumer Service) Regulations, 2020 (L12413).
He said that the law imposed a duty on public utilities to provide safe, adequate, efficient, reasonable and non-discriminatory service.
“The law also mandates the Commission to impose compensation orders among other penalties on public utilities for failure to comply with their legal obligations,” he said.
Dr Ackah said it was for that reason the commission in consideration of the inconvenience occasioned by the failures with the ECG prepayment meter system determined that ECG would pay compensation to all its affected customers.
The Executive Secretary of the PURC said that the ECG would additionally adopt immediate measures to increase staff output and responsiveness to customers.
Dr Ackah said ECG would extend the working hours at all affected locations to 8pm,
engage temporary staff to ensure that affected customers were speedily attended to and were credited with the approved compensation by October 7, 2022.
“Final resolution of the vending failure as soon as possible with minimum further inconvenience to consumers,” he added.
Filming and voicing out his frustration in the dark, a livid Derrick Kobina Bonney (DKB) was concerned about the technical challenge that has affected prepaid metering systems making it impossible for customers to top up.
The situation has led to some customers sleeping in darkness as the purchase of electricity credit for prepaid metres has sadly been interrupted.
“Prepaid network down, can’t buy lights, darkness everywhere! But I have to wait on NDC before I’ll know if I’m in darkness! Pure rubbish and nonsense!” the comedian fumed in a tweet, Thursday.
In the video clip that had the aforementioned caption, DKB could not fathom why genuine concerns are diluted for political expediency. He noted that whenever concerns are raised, there is a swift attempt by a section of the public to politicize the matter, a posture he condemned without equivocation.
“In this country, if there is a socio-economic problem bothering you and you complain about it, they’ll tell you you’re manipulated by the opposition,” he said.
“Since morning that we’ve not had prepaid to buy and our lights are off, me as a human being, as a Ghanaian, I can’t see that I don’t have light so I need to wait for NDC to tell me that I don’t have light so that I’ll complain about it and it will unpopularize NDC.”
Meanwhile, the Electricity Company of Ghanahas in a statement assured the general public of its resolve to surmount the challenge.
“Affected customers should please note that our ICT team is working assiduously to correct the anomaly and restore the system to normalcy. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this technical challenge,” parts of the statement read.
Some customers in Volta, Kumasi, Accra, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw, and Tafo have been affected by the hiccup.
The Commission, in a statement, said it was closely monitoring the situation and was in full discussions with the service provider to address the issue.
The ECG on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, informed its customers on the E-cash and PNS metering systems that due to a technical challenge, purchase of electricity credit had been interrupted, affecting customers in Volta, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw, and Tafo.
The Company on Thursday, September 29, 2022, said that it was working to rectify the technical anomaly, which had affected the purchase of electricity.
It, therefore, urged customers in the Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Western and Volta regions to visit the Company’s district offices to purchase electricity.
Meanwhile, some customers have described the incident as unfortunate and asked the PURC to direct ECG to compensate those affected.
Government has approved an amount of GHc24 million for repackaging and re-awarding of Swedru Akora River dredging Project after it was stalled for more than five years.
The approval of that colossal amount of money will help ease the huge traffic jam that hit Swedru town, particularly on market days on Mondays and Thursdays.
Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection and MP for Agona West made this known when she joined a five-hour clean-up exercise at the banks of Akora River.
The exercise, organised by Concerned Youth of Agona Swedru saw the people weeding and collecting huge plastic bottles and sachet water bags piled-up alongside the river.
According to the MP, the Contractor would move to site to commence work before the end of March.
Mrs Morrison said apart from dredging of the river, three more steel bridges were added to the contract to be constructed at Desuenem/Owani/ Mangoase to join Old Sawmills.
Another one will be constructed at Swedru Post Office to Pentecost Prayer Centre to join Nkubem bye-pass road and Swedru Zabo Zongo to Swedru Mahodwe.
The Gender Minister said the contact would also cover Woraba Estate and Swedru Mangoase roads and other parts of Swedru Township.
Additionally, talks are on-going with roads and Highways Ministry to include the roads at Mahodwe community, which were not originally in the contract.
She said the construction of asphalt roads were started at Swedru town and expressed the hope that the contractor completed on schedule to enable Swedru to become beautiful and vibrant.
The Minister stated that the Akora River banks would be used as a recreational centre, where holidaymakers could go instead of travelling all the way to Winneba and Kokrobite in Accra and other beaches for fun.
The MP debunked rumours being peddled in the Swedru township and the rest of the Constituency that she threatened to arrest anyone who would reconstruct the wooden bridge swept away by torrential rains last October.
According to Mrs Morrison, the demonstration staged by the Concerned Youth of Swedru, as a result, was their legitimate right.
She expressed satisfaction that the asphalt road works in Swedru Texaco to Swedru Government Hospital Mortuary, Junction which began recently would soon be completed and appealed to the residents to cooperate.
She said the Nyakrom roads were constructed and tarred to facilitate transportation of goods and services in the area.
The Minister said the government had kept faith with of the people of Agona West and the entire nation as well, adding that everything possible would be done to ensure that the national cake was equally distributed to ensure quality living for Ghanaians.
