Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has distributed free electricity meters to selected government schools in Rivers State and sensitised students on electrical safety as part of its 2026 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
The initiative, which was carried out at Government Model Secondary School, GRA, Port Harcourt, is aimed at improving the learning environment while reducing incidents of electric shock and other hazards associated with unsafe electricity use.
Speaking with journalists after the exercise yesterday, PHED Head of Communications, Mrs Olubukola Olawale, said the programme demonstrated the company’s commitment to giving back to the communities it serves.
“Being a socially responsible organisation, one of the things we do at PHED is to ensure that we touch the lives of our customers. It is not only about collecting bills; we also think about what we can do to impact society,” she said.
Olawale explained that the beneficiary schools were carefully selected based on identified needs and their demonstrated commitment to protecting the facilities provided.
“We didn’t just select schools randomly. We carried out sensitisation and developed indices to identify schools that we considered responsible enough to take care of the meters,” she said.
She added that school authorities were educated on meter preservation and warned against tampering with the equipment or engaging unqualified personnel.
“If there are issues, we have educated them that they should reach out to qualified personnel from PHED to ensure that they don’t tamper with the meter. We also have a monitoring team to checkmate any such incidents,” Olawale stated.
According to her, PHED, which operates across Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, would extend similar interventions to schools in the other states.
She disclosed that the company had also written off long-standing electricity debts owed by some beneficiary schools.
“For this particular school, the Model Secondary School, GRA, it was a long-standing debt, bills that had accumulated for years. You cannot say you are giving free meters and then put the old debt on that meter. That is why management decided to write off the debt as part of the CSR,” she said.
Responding, the Principal of Model Senior Secondary School, GRA, Mrs Tamunoinaba Phillips, commended PHED for the intervention, saying the lack of electricity had created an uncomfortable learning environment.
“We know how much it costs to buy fuel for generators. When the weather is hot, it is difficult to sit in the classrooms. Now you have given us a meter free of charge and also cancelled the debt that accrued from previous bills. We are grateful,” Phillips said.
She urged the students to protect the meter and report any attempt to vandalise or tamper with it.
Similarly, the Principal of Government Secondary School, Borokiri, Nwala Uzoma, expressed appreciation for the debt relief, noting that he inherited a debt of about N500,000 when he assumed office in 2024.
“I was highly overwhelmed with joy and happiness over the bill of N500,000 that had been on our neck. I inherited that debt, but today they have come to write it off for us,” he said.
The beneficiary schools include Model Secondary School, GRA; Pabod Model Secondary School, Bernard Carr; Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Rumuokrushi; Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Rukpokwu; Township Model Primary School 2, Moscow Road; Government Secondary School, Borokiri; and Government Secondary School, Umusoya.