The Management of Kaduna Electric in a continuous effort to engage the customer and communicate its customer-centric culture has once again held the Customer Appreciation Day/Customer Forum, this time at Rigasa Area Office of Kaduna.
In his welcome address, the Business Development and Relationship Officer (BDRO) of Rigasa Area Office, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed expressed his profound gratitude to the customers for accepting to attend what he termed “a stakeholder’s forum”.
He added that the aim of the gathering was to appreciate the customers, get their feedback and establish a mutual understanding.
He called on the residents who were in attendance to become goodwill ambassadors of Kaduna Electric by encouraging others to pay their bills and cooperate with our Sales Representative who have been assigned to resolve their complaints and distribute bills.
The Chief Marketing and Customer Services Officer, Mal. Murtala Bello who was represented by the Business Development and Relationship Officer, Barnawa Area Office, Mr. Sunday Yahya extoled the place of a customer in any business. According to him: “We are in business because of you and we need you to partner with us to make our services better”.
Explaining further, he appealed to the community to endeavor to settle their bills as at when dueadding that it is by so doing that the company can continue to provide the service and meet its financial obligation. He urged them to assist in the protection of the company’s installations, which he said are beneficial to both the residents and the company.
“We need your collaboration in the area of community policing, reporting cases of meter compromise and any form of energy theft and cooperating with staff in the areas of customer enumeration, bill distribution among others”.
The Chairman, Electricity Committee for the area,Hanyin Danmani, appealed to the community to pay their bills, urging them to support the company in whatever way they can.
He however called on staff of Kaduna Electric to be professional when dealing with customers by being patient with them while ensuring that they do not supply low voltage, which he said, will result in losses to the company.
In his keynote address, The Head, Corporate Communications, Abdulazeez Abdullahi who was represented by the Team Lead, Media and Community Relations, Mal. Idris Muhammad told the Rigasa residents that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry is interdependent with the distribution companies at the last end of the value chain. This situation, he said, puts Kaduna Electric in the position where it has to be collecting cash on behalf of the value chain.
He berated the activities of miscreants in the area, which he said is making the job of cash collection difficult in Rigasa, adding that the company records a monthly deficit of N630 million out of a N750 million target.
He therefore called on the community to expose their non-paying neigbours who he described as the people sabotaging the efforts of getting power supply to paying-customers. He promised to treat the whistleblower’s information with confidentiality.
He went further to caution staff to eschew any acts of misconduct, which he said is hampering the steady supply of electricity while urging members of the public to report any of such cases.
Some of the residents complained about the faulty transformer at Hanyin Danmani, high estimated bills among others grievances.
A customer, who identified himself as Dele, said some of the issues besetting the company could be surmounted if Sales Reps can become a bit friendlier and defaulting/culpable customers are punished for offences committed in order to serve as a deterrent to others. He also advised Kaduna Electric to introduce incentives that will encourage defaulting customers or tenants who have inherited debt on accounts to pay.
“The company can ask customers who have inherited a debt on an account for instance to pay 50% of an outstanding debt and 50% will be written off. This strategy has been adopted by the defunct NEPA at a point and a lot of customers responded, myself inclusive”, he stated.
