Don’t pay electricity bills to our staff, KEDCO admonishes consumers

The Managing Director of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna, has called on consumers in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states to desist from paying their electricity bills through the personnel of the company.

Speaking at a media parley in Kano, Gwamna advised KEDCO consumers to ensure they pay their bills at any KEDCO offices and or at the nearest banks.

“Customers should also ensure collection of receipt after payment. The nefarious activities such staff who collect revenue from customers without remitting same to the company is affecting our revenue collection,” he said.

Dr. Gwamna urged KEDCO customers to desist from patronising such personnel, noting that: “You should rather pay your bills through the banks, directly to KEDCO offices or through POS and you insist on getting official receipt for any such payments.

According to him, in less than one year, KEDCO was able to improve on its revenue collection from 48 per cent in the last five years to 60 per cent presently.

The KEDCO boss said the company had improved on its customer experience, pointing out that, “we have customer units in all our 180 offices across the three states. Effectively, we resolve technical complaints within a space of two hours, while commercial complaints are resolved within 24 hours. We are currently working on having 24 hour customer care unit service so that customers can get us at any time and lay their complaints for immediate action.”

He said in 2018 alone, KEDCO spent N4 billion on capital expenditure on which over 200 transformers and 60 vehicles were purchased, among other essential infrastructure, to improve power supply.

The KEDCO boss also lamented on the challenges of metre by-pass, saying the issue of illegal connections by customers is becoming a big challenge to the company.

He added that the development had adversely affected the company’s revenue target, noting that “we are almost running at a loss.”

Gwamna blamed the epileptic power supply being experienced in recent times to faulty transformers, pointing out that KEDCO loses distribution of about 70 to 80 megawatts to two faulty transformers which were yet to be fixed or replaced by Transmission Company of Nigeria.