he Managing Director of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko Disco), Dr. Tinuade Sanda has assured residents of Aja and Ibeju Districts of Lagos State that steps are being taken to resolve epileptic power supply issues plaguing the areas.
She gave the assurance during town hall interactive session with the customers to generate permanent solutions to the issues raised.
The MD/CEO of Eko Disco, Dr. Tinuade Sanda was represented at the meeting by the Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Joseph Esenwa who assured the customers that the Management of the company is aware of the issues affecting power supply in the areas and has thus organised the platform to address the situation.
He said, “on behalf of the MD/CEO of Eko Disco, I would like to appreciate your support for our company as we cannot be in business without you, our esteemed customers.
“We have come here today to listen to your challenges, resolve them as our customer service team is on ground, and the one we cannot resolve here today will be surely addressed by our management team at your districts or the head office.”
While commending EKEDC for the engagement forum, some of the customers and the representatives of various Community Development Associations (CDAs) in Ajah and Ibeju enumerated the challenges affecting electricity supply in their respective communities.
Most complaints were about inadequate power supply, while others were about metering, estimated billing, and safety issues within the company’s network.
Mr. Esenwa appealed to the customers and explained that while some of the complaints raised are peculiar to EKEDC, many were due to general issues affecting electricity supply in the whole nation.
On the issue of inadequate supply of power, the CFO indicated that the Disco, in recent times, does not get its due allocation of supply from the national grid as a result of low generation of power, and manages the insufficient one it gets from the grid.
He however informed the customers about the ongoing efforts to resolve this situation such as the CBN loans for Capex projects to TCN and Discos which will ensure procurement and rehabilitation of many electricity infrastructures to improve power supply in Nigeria.
As regards metering, Mr. Esenwa advised the customers to key into the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme to get prepaid meters, while announcing the commencement of mobile metering within the company’s network and assured customers that the exercise will get to their areas in due time.
The CFO concluded by calling for continued support from the customers, especially in the area of curbing energy theft which contributes to high billings the customers are experiencing.
Furthermore, he urged them to duly inform their respective communities about this and engage their local security networks to stop the perpetrators who mostly carry out this heinous act at night.
In a related development, the electricity consumers at Itire, Lawanson, Idi-Araba, and Mushin have tasked Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) to improve its service delivery.
The residents of these communities made the demand to the DisCo during an engagement forum on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at the Great Ville Hotels in Surulere, Lagos.
According to the spokesperson of the Company, Godwin Idemudia, “the purpose of the town hall meetings is part of our continuous engagement with our customers to let us know how we can serve them better by listening to their challenges.
“The Management is keen on establishing a closer relationship with customers across our network, hence the engagement forums. This is the third engagement forum since Dr. Tinuade Sanda assumed the role as MD/CEO of EKEDC following the ones we held for customers in Ijora and Ojo districts.”
Represented by the Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Joseph Esenwa, the MD/CEO of Eko DisCo, Dr. Tinuade Sanda assured the customers that the company will do better in meeting their expectations.
She said, “it is obvious that the electricity industry is going through numerous challenges that are even beyond the capacity of the DisCos, which are causing setbacks to power supply. As the face of the power industry to the consumers, it is essential for us to actively engage our customers on platforms such as this to identify their problems and provide solutions.
The customers lauded EKEDC for taking such a measure but decried the impact of the challenges they face such as the drop in electricity supply, overloaded distribution transformers, estimated billings, and challenges in getting prepaid meters.
The Chairman of Customer Consultative Forum in Mushin, Honourable Afeez Lawal requested the DisCo to provide more prepaid meters which according to him is the solution to the menace of estimated billing to customers.
In his account, Mr. Lawal Musa representing Idi-Araba Community charged Eko DisCo to replace the deteriorated poles and wires that are preventing adequate power supply and causing safety hazards.
While addressing the complaints, Dr. Sanda through the CFO, explained to the customers that inadequate gas supply, low power generation, system collapse, and vandalism have contributed to the drop in power supply, and they are not peculiar to only EKEDC.
However, she assured that the company is currently working with the other industry stakeholders to ensure these challenges are reduced to the barest minimum. ‘We are upgrading our distribution infrastructure across our network with a loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The network improvement projects may not be going as quickly as you had anticipated but I can assure you that we will get to your areas.”
In addition to this, Dr. Sanda urged the customers to embrace the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme provided by the Government in closing the metering gap before the commencement of Phase 1 of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
She further announced the mobile metering exercise by Eko DisCo to ensure customers get metered within 72 hours of payment confirmation.
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