Dare Babalola
The Kano Electricity Distribution Company has threatened to disconnect the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital if it fails to pay its N949.88 million debt.
In a statement on Monday signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Sani Bala, the company gave the hospital 10 working days to settle the N108.95 million bill for August in full or face disconnection.
He explained that the teaching hospital, which belongs to Bayero University, a federal institution, had been notified on August 12 of plans to disconnect its staff quarters and non-essential areas over partial payment of the electricity bill.
He recalled that the message was conveyed to the AKTH in a letter signed by the Chief Commercial Officer, Muhammad Aminu.
He, however, assured that electricity supply to health facilities, especially those offering critical and life-saving services, would remain a top priority, adding that its services had since been restored to the AKTH after an ongoing process to separate the main hospital campus and health facilities from the staff quarters and residential complex.
He frowned at the huge debts recorded on the electricity consumed, saying, “No payment has been made for electricity consumed at the residential complex despite its negative impact on service delivery and KEDCO’s operations.”
”The main campus and health facilities are connected to a top-priority 33KVA Zaria Road feeder to enjoy an average of 22 hours of daily supply under Band A services.
“However, the AKTH management has continued to insist that staff quarters and residential homes remain on the same feeder as the hospital, and this has continued to pose repeated risks to the stability and reliability of supply,” he said.
The head of corporate communication noted that several attempts to separate the two lines were unsuccessful due to management’s resistance and eventually resulted in a severe fault that caused the recent outage.
He added that to safeguard an uninterrupted supply to the hospital, the company proceeded with the separation of the two supply lines.
