Kano Disco running at loss, says MD

The Managing Director of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), Mr. Jamil Isiyaku Gwamna, yesterday lamented the inability of customers to pay electricity bill, a development which he said has grossly affected the revenue generation drive of the company.

Gwamna, who spoke during the 2018 Marketing Conference of the company held in Kano, said the company has almost been running at loss, due to non-prompt-payment of electricity bills by subscribers.

According to him, despite the challenge, the company has been able to wax stronger in terms of service delivery, as the number of hours of electricity supply to customers has greatly increased in the three zones of Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states.

He further stated that “this is the third marketing conference we KEDCO are organising within the last two years. The reason behind the yearly marketing conference is for us to come together to fashion out strategies that will enhance the company’s progress and for our customers to get acquainted with our plans for steady power supply and prompt payment for their bills, so as to enhance our revenue generation by meeting our targets.

“Also, the staff and the management to come out and brain storm on what we have achieved last time and then see what we are going to achieve for the year to come.

“So, this is where we set the tone for next year. We do this because we want everybody to be onboard and understand the objectives of the company and our driving philosophy, so that at the end of the day, we provide those things we promised to provide, such as customer intimacy through the improvement of our service delivery and to also make sure that the company becomes profitable over time.

“You see, the power sector in the country has a lot of challenges. Despite the challenges, there are some incremental improvement we have done. Overall, if you look at the industry, it hasn’t fared very well, simply based on various reasons. I don’t want to trade blames here but modestly at KEDCO we have been able to improve on our customers’ service delivery.

“We have improved on the number of power supply and we have also been rated high by customers’ response. We have also invested a lot of money, in terms of achieving all what our customers have enjoyed. Could we be better? Yes, we can be better. Is it what we want at the moment? No! That is why we are trying to put all these in their proper perspective. And as such, we still have a long way to go.”

He said, “Our greatest challenge is with our customers. In our collection efficiency, especially in the residential areas, it is still less than 30 per cent; so that means, that for every one kobo of electricity that we supply in kilowatts hour, we lose 70 kobo and we have been unable to collect that 70 kobo. So, it is a huge loss for us. This is the industry that needs the cooperation of everybody because we are service providers.

“So, unless our customers promptly pay for those services, we cannot break even. On our target of N4 billion, at the moment, we are still very far from that in meeting the revenue target.”