Legon SRC levies students to buy electricity generators
Residential students of the University of Ghana are to pay a GH¢100 levy for the purchase of heavy duty generating sets to provide power for their academic work.
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The Students Representative Council (SRC) is imposing the levy with the support of the university’s administration in the wake of the ongoing load-shedding exercise, commonly known as ‘dumsor dumsor’.
More than 10 power generators are expected to be purchased from the levy for the halls and lecture theatres of the university.
The country is currently facing a load-shedding of more than 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
Exemptions
Speaking with the Daily Graphic, the SRC President of the University of Ghana, Mr Joshua Dogbe, said the levy would be paid in two instalments in two semesters.
This means a student will pay GHC50 each semester.
“It is purely a students’ project from students’ levy, which has the support of the school’s administration and the involvement of the Public Procurement Authority to ensure smooth tender processes,” he said.
Mr Dogbe, however, said students at the Accra City Campus and the Distance Education Unit of the university were exempted from the levy.
He further explained that some funds from the Junior Common Room (JCR) levy paid by students annually would be used to buy fuel to operate the generators.
Justification
Although the university has a few generators, Mr Dogbe said these were inadequate to supply power to all the residential and lecture halls on the campus.
Moreover, the university’s academic work was constrained by the load-shedding exercise during the last semester, a situation that prompted the council to plead with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to exempt them from the exercise.
“When we were writing our exams last December, the SRC had to go and plead with the ECG to exempt us from the load-shedding exercise so we could study,” he explained.
With the power outages likely to worsen, Mr Dogbe said, students could be among those who would be hardest hit by the crisis. Therefore it was very important for the council to embark on the project to give students some relief from the ‘dumsor’.
Indications are that the university administration has officially been notified of the intentions of the SRC.