By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The Managing Director/CEO of Kaduna Electric, Engr. Yusuf Usman Yahaya has called for better understanding, greater co-operation and deep collaboration between the company and its customers, especially community and opinion leaders, to enable the Company deliver greater value to the customers.
Engr. Yahaya made the assertion yesterday in Kaduna during a sensitization and knowledge sharing session organized for stakeholders, community leaders and neigbourhood associations in Makera and Gonin Gora Area Offices of the Company.
The Kaduna Electric helmsman, who took time to explain the dynamics of the Nigerian Electricity Market as it is today, charged the community leaders and other leaders of thought to lead the campaign for behavioural change in their communities while giving assurance that the Distribution Company under his watch will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to give value to the customers.
He also called on the community leaders to work with Kaduna Electric to fish-out delinquents and outlaws who are engaging in all sorts of illegalities and or are bent on making the relationship between the company and its good customers unnecessarily acrimonious.
“We want a workable partnership with all communities in our franchise; we want to have an effective collaboration that works for all parties; a synergy that provides value for both the customers and the Company, while dealing with few bad eggs that constitute hindrance to our efforts to ensuring improved service delivery”, he said.
The Kaduna Electric Managing Director also expressed concern over the commercial performance of some feeders, communities and Distribution sub-stations, describing a situation where only 17% of the cost of energy delivered is realised at the end of the month in some communities as “the greatest threat to sustainable service delivery by the Company in particular and the entire Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI in general.
He therefore called for more efforts by all stakeholders in changing public perception and behaviours of community members on the adverse effects, bad attitudes such as non-payments of bills, energy theft, meter bypass and vandalism, have been having on the Company’s operations over the years.
The traditional rulers and community leaders took turn to present issues and complaints from their communities and offered suggestions.
