MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Project 415 to Serve as Effective Revenue Drive Machinery

Team Lead Enumerations

CCD: May we meet you Sir?

TG: My name is Tijjani Mustapha Galangi, Head Enumerations Unit, Marketing and Customer Services Department, Kaduna Electric.

CCD: You’re the Project Manager of Project 415, can you tell us what the Project is all about?

Project 415 is the second phase of Kaduna Electric’s Geo-spatial Information System. Basically what we are doing in the Project is to map out our business areas and take stock of the Company’s assets, such as HT and LT lines, distribution sub-stations as well identifying all existing and potentials customers thereby providing more accurate and reliable data needed for planning and project execution.

CCD: What was the customer’s population before the commencement of the Project?

TG: We had about 455,000 registered customers on the data base company wide,  but based on the 2006 census, we know there are about 16million people and 2.2million household within our franchise area. So if you look at what we have in our record and what  is out there, the customers’ population is grossly small. In addition to this data, according to World Bank projection, 57% of the household have electricity supply, so we should be looking at about the population of a million customers in our data base, but right now we have less than half a million. So the essence of the project is to identify unbilled electricity users, bring them into our data base and ensure that they are billed accordingly.

CCD: What are the benefit been anticipated to accrued the Company after the successful completion of the project?

TG: The enumerations excises will boost the customers’ base of the Company from the present 455,000 to about 1million on completion. The project will also help us find out and know our customers, we would know who our customers are, what they are lacking and how to serve them better. Of course, it will ultimately improve the revenue capacity of the Company, because if you have more customers that are registered in the data base and are being billed, you would have a better propensity to collect more money since the energy is already out there and is being taken. In essence, the project will help us identify all these issues, help us to bill our customers appropriately base on what they consume, so you see it will reduce our commercial losses and increase revenue.

CCD: How long do you think the excise will take?

TG: We are looking at concluding the Project hopefully before the middle of next year.

CCD: Is there any challenges in carrying out this assignment?

TG: Yes. We are having challenges with the customers’ resistance or unwillingness to readily provide their information but some of them understand what the Company is up to, what the Project is all about, but we have been carrying out sensitization and they are beginning to give us cooperation. There are also scenario where a customers are not available in their houses and capturing them is very difficult and also some put up pockets of resistance when we demand to separate too many customers having one service. We have customers that share those collective bills and they want to stick to that mode of payment instead of having their own separate bills.

CCD: How do you plan to resolve such challenge?

TG: The project 415 has afforded the team opportunity to sensitise the public on the operations of the Company, their rights, obligations,  the benefit of each customer having his/her own bill and other sundry information. The team members do take time off to engage community and opinion leaders, thereby creating awareness among the populace and reducing misunderstanding. So far so good, we are progressing and after the successful completion of the project, we all as a company will be happy. The Project will not  only serve as the revenue drive machinery for the Company, but it would also help us improve our services to the customers. There would be reliable data for planning such as expansion plan, metering plan and so on and hopefully, our customers would happier than they are now because of improved service delivery. As you know, a happy customer is  a paying customer, so at the end of the day, it would be a win-win situation for both the company and the customers. 

CCD: Any appeal or suggestion to the management?

TG: My appeal to the Management is that they should continue to support the Project through the provision of all needed logistics wherever required.