From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) Plc Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Emeka Ezeh has expressed worry over what he described as poor payment culture by its postpaid customers across the South East, “despite the steady improvement in the quality of its services.”
Ezeh spoke on Sunday after the company’s just concluded cash drive exercise embarked on across its network, last week.
He lamented huge collection loss he said the company was grappling with while striving to improve on the quality of services, and at the same time meet up with its regulatory obligations to the market operator and other players within the electricity value chain.
“The fact that customers are so comfortable consuming our supply and not paying remains a matter of concern to us as an enterprise, as this attitude negatively impacts on our overall performance.
“This situation informed the need for us to embark on the cash drive exercise, to enable us meet with these customers one-on-one to know why they are not paying their bills, ” he said.
Ezeh emphasized that cash was key in running the operations of the company, as it enables it attend to the barrage of network challenges, as well as carry out some network expansion projects targeted at improved performance and service delivery.
According to the company’s spokesman, on a monthly basis the company imported and distributed energy to its customers, but ended up struggling to recover the revenue, thereby leaving the company with a rising debt profile.
“The fact remains that there has been steady and consistent improvement in the quality of services to our customers and it is expected that the impact of this improvement has to reflect in their bills at the end of the month, ” Ezeh explained.
He further reiterated that if customers were not paying their bills as and when due, there was no way EEDC could continue sustaining its operations and providing quality services.
Ezeh went on to advise customers who had issues with their electricity bills to take advantage of the established customer redress mechanism at the customer service units across our service centers and district offices to lodge their complaints.
He explained that the company was committed to serving its customers and appealed for their support in ensuring that they paid their bills promptly and avoid all forms of energy theft.