The Kano Electricity Distribution Company has urged the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital to settle its N949.88 million debt as of August, or be prepared for disconnection.

The KEDCO also requested that the hospital settle the N108.95 million bill for August in full within 10 working days, according to a statement by the electricity firm on Monday.

The hospital has an outstanding liability of N949.88 million as of August, and it is expected to settle its August bill of N108.95 million in full within 10 working days, or the company will decide on its next action, it said.

“No payment has been made for electricity consumed at the residential complex in spite of its negative impact on service delivery and KEDCO’s operations,” the company stated.

KEDCO, in a letter dated August 12 and signed by the chief commercial officer, Muhammad Aminu, had notified AKTH of its plans to withdraw electricity services from staff quarters and non-essential areas due to partial settlement of the bills, the statement explained.

It, however, assured the public that electricity supply to health facilities, especially those offering critical and life-saving services, would remain a top priority.

It also assured that KEDCO remains committed to providing uninterrupted electricity to the hospital, a foremost health institution, while appealing for its cooperation in the separation exercise.

It further explained that electricity 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.

”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,” KEDCO said.

It 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.

(NAN)