About a month ago, Eko Electricity Distribution Company held a town hall meeting with its customers. An effective way of paying attention to grey areas that may need urgent attention within its distribution network.
The company’s efficiency is associated with the proactiveness of its Manager, Dr. Tinuade Sanda. Under her supervision, the company ensures it resolves minor issues which are cable or transformer-related within a day. Even major problems which are required to be resolved in two days, do not drag on for weeks, so as not to throw any of its areas into darkness and putting extra costs on residents.
Recently, EKEDC introduced new services that enable customers to make their frequent utility bill payments through the use of a unique NUBAN account number. While Eko Disco, under Dr. Sanda, is making great efforts toward the availability of adequate power supply to customers, it is also securing its revenue by ensuring customers find it easy to pay their electricity bills.
Though Nigerians are deprived of access to basic utilities, across the country, Tinuade Sanda’s EKEDC has been striving to provide basic utility; Electricity to its customers.
Eko Electricity Distribution Plc currently supplies power to the southern part of Lagos State and the Agbara community in Ogun State. These licensed areas are segmented into 11 districts – Lekki, Ibeju, Islands, Orile, Ijora, Apapa, Mushin, Festac, Ojo, Ajah and Agbara. Receiving between 11 and 15 percent of the total energy allocation from the national grid, the company procures bulk electricity from Akangba, Ajah and Ikeja West transmission stations.
To forestall a full-blown public protest, the company called a town hall meeting, where the major challenges it is facing were tabled before its empathetic customers. At the forum, the Managing Director of EKEDC, Dr. Tinuade Sanda, acknowledged the deplorable condition of Electricity distribution nationwide. She attributed the blackout experienced by its customers to alleged damage to the cables at some construction sites on Lagos Island.
Sanda assured customers that the management was aware of the issues affecting power supply in the areas and has thus organised the platform to address the situation. Most complaints were about the inadequate power supply, while others were about metering, estimated billing, and safety issues within the company’s network.
The company has ensured an easy-to-use interface for its customers, while it also improves on electricity distribution. It has eased the payment of electricity bills by customers, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) unveiled a payment platform, called ‘IRecharge’, in June, 2022. The payment solution was done in collaboration with IRecharge Tech-Innovations.
The company has made undaunted efforts to improve the quality of life for all EKEDC customers by utilising cutting-edge technology and innovative processes to supply electricity sustainably, reliably, and safely.
It will further ensure both postpaid and prepaid customers go through a seamless process of paying their electricity bills and purchasing their prepaid meter tokens without any hassles. The platform is not only fast and convenient but is also safe for customers to make their transactions.
Under Sanda, the company explores innovative ways to deliver value and improve its service delivery in order to maintain its leadership status in the power industry.
The new payment solution provides and pairs a unique NUBAN number to every prepaid meter number and postpaid account number. Payment to these NUBAN numbers automatically generates and sends a token/receipt to the payee via SMS, Email and WhatsApp without convenience fees.
The permanent account numbers could be retrieved through the IRecharge website, by downloading the IRecharge App, by dialling *6606*1# USSD Code or via WhatsApp through 09096666612.
Payments to the account numbers could be done via several channels such as internet banking, ATM transfer, USSD transfer, bank deposit and at any mobile money agent location (POS).
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
