Hundreds of residents within the Tongo township and other communities in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have refused to pay their electricity bills due to frequent blackout.
They have vowed to resist any attempts by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to disconnect their electricity power.
The residents said for the past five months, they have experienced blackouts anytime it rains or threatens to rain, a situation they contend affects their livelihoods and businesses.
On Monday, August 24, 2026, officials from NEDCo attempted to disconnect the electricity supply to households, shops and institutions in parts of Talensi due to huge debt owed the company. But the residents resisted and prevented NEDCo officials from carrying out their duties and later besiegeD the premises of the Talensi District Assembly.
For close to five months, when there is a general outage and electricity power is restored, Tongo township and many communities will still be in darkness for more than 24 hours.
Some residents expressed their frustrations on the situation.
“We have taken this pain for a while now, our electrical appliances have been damaged and businesses are suffering due to the persistent and frequent blackouts we experienced from NEDCo and is very bad”, a resident fumed.
“How can they (NEDCo) just come and start disconnecting our lights when we have not enjoyed the electricity power”, another residents said.
A cold store dealer, recounts how the frequent blackouts affect her business.
“Just look at the fish and meat in the fridge, they are all going bad due to the lights out. Since morning at around 10am that the lights went off and is yet to come almost 6:00 pm and it will as usual go beyond this night”, she said.
The Talensi District Chief Executive Millim Nabwomya said efforts are underway to permanently resolve the electricity challenges in the district.
Meanwhile, officials from NEDCo have remained silent on the issue
