MEET THE STAFF SERIES

How We Are Tackling The Challenges

of “NEPA 2”

CCD:  Abdulhamid Abubakar, you are the Supervisor for Governors Feeder. What is your role as a Supervisor?

AA: As a Supervisor I have a lot to do. I am more like the Managing Director (MD) of my Service Center, I oversee all the activities of all the staff under my Service Centre and I make sure that every staff is committed to the job. 

CCD: What are your strategies for running the Service Center?

AA: I have trained my staff, especially the Marketers on how to achieve the organization’s set objectives. We normally do community engagement which I consider key to the success of this business. This enables our customers to know how this business is being run, how much we value them as our customers even though our business looks like a monopoly. 

We use the medium to tell them that the energy was bought and when it is sold, it is expected that they as the customers pay so that we can remain in business.

CCD: Since you became a Supervisor, what would you consider your high points?

AA: We have achieved so many things. The number one thing for me is the collection, which is the backbone of the business.

When I assumed duty here it was 6 million Naira and now we have moved up to 7.5 million Naira in the last two months except for this month, which generally recorded a drop in collection due to the prevalent financial problem all over, and the bills that didn’t come out early enough.

CCD: How would you describe the kind of challenges you are facing?

AA: The issue of our staff not using their initiative when there is a need is something of concern to me. Take the new bills for instance, they are supposed to enlighten the customers on the fact that our bills are now wearing a new look and make clarifications where need be but many of them don’t do this.

Secondly, the issue of “NEPA 2”, when we disconnect a defaulting customer, they reconnect the customer for as low as Five Hundred Naira (N500), so the customers patronize them because it is cheaper compared to paying Two Thousand Naira (N2,000) to Kaduna Electric for reconnection. This situation has led us to disconnect a whole community because they refused to pay their bills. A community like Shaiskawa was disconnected last week in order to compel them to pay their bills, and I can tell you that out of 26 bills, they cleared 18 and we promptly reconnected those who paid leaving only the defaulting customers. 

CCD: What do you think can be done to stop the activities of “NEPA 2”?

AA: We have started something for now on Afamu Road, where we asked them to set up a committee on power. The Chairman and Secretary of the committee will be part of our bill distribution and line disconnection exercise. Thereafter, should there be any illegal reconnection, the committee Chairman and Secretary will be held responsible. This tactic has worked very well so far; we hope to replicate it in other Clusters.

CCD: How are you managing your relationship with staff in order make them work towards achieving their goals?

AA: I maintain a cordial relationship with my staff; we work as a team because if anyone fails in his responsibility, it would affect the whole Service Center.  I always make them see the team as a family whereby if one person has a challenge we can work together to fix the problem.

I have told the Marketers to manage their Clusters like their personal business because our daily bread depends on the success of the company and it is only when we take ownership of it that it can succeed. 

I have also assigned Engineers to the Marketers to enable them tackle technical problems. 

In fact, right now there is a Marketer on leave, but we are not feeling her absence because an Engineer has been sent to replace her and so the work is going on smoothly in Governors Feeder as one big family.

CCD: Any appeal/suggestion to staff/management.

AA: I am appealing to the management to provide security for us especially where/when we are faced with stubborn customers.  We need security because of the kind of hostility we face and the notion that they (customers) cannot be punished if they hurt any of us needs to be addressed.

But if we had some security or law protecting us in the discharge of our duties, such harassment will reduce.

Look at what happened to one of our Engineers at Airport Feeder, Sabon Gari; he was beaten almost to a pulp.  I had to disconnect the entire village from my network and I wrote to the Head Office to inform them about the incident. The Village Head later came with the BDRO to clear their debt and an agreement was reached before they were reconnected. 

Chairman Kaduna Electric,Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar delivering closing remarks @ th...

pictures from the Kaduna Innovention roundtable for start-ups and entrepreneurs where our chairman, Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, was chairman of the occasion.

The Chairman, Kaduna Electric,  Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, (right) presenting an award to Governor Nasir El-Rufai who was represented by the state commissioner for commerce, Dr. Manzo Daniel Maigari, at the Innovention roundtable for startups and entrepreneurs in Kaduna yesterday

MEET THE STAFF SERIES

The Nonchalant Attitude of Other Departments Demotivate Staff

CCD: Umaru Samaila tell us a bit about yourself

US: My name is Umaru Samaila Mazadu, I was born on 25^th September, 1982. I am an indigene of Mangu L.G.C. of Plateau State. I started my early education at Ekan Primary School Mangu, from where I proceeded to Hauwa Memorial Secondary school, I backed an NCE from College of Education Gindiri and a B.Sc. Economics from University of Maiduguri. My quest for more knowledge took me to Usmanu Danfodiyo University where I backed M.Sc. Economics. I am married with two children.

CCD: What is your responsibility as a marketer?

US: As a sale representative my primary responsibility is to generate revenue for the company, acquire and classify customers through enumeration, manage customer accounts, monitor prepaid meters and to crown it all mediate between the company and its customers.

CCD: How would you describe the kinds of challenges you are facing?

US: My greatest challenge is the over blame which is always push to Marketing and Customer Services Staff. There are faults emanating from other departments but in most cases its overlooked, everyone knows that marketing department is key to the success of this company but its efforts can be sabotage by the nonchalant attitude of other departments. This actually is highly demotivational.

CCD: What differentiated your department with others?

US: My department, Marketing and Customer Services Department is a unique one because it plays a vital role in promoting the business and mission of this organization. It serves as the face of the company than even Corporate Communication Department since it is the department that reach out to customers/or the community at large and create an overarching image that represents the entire departments of the company in a positive light. Moreover, it shoulders the burden of realising the goals and objectives of the company.

CCD: What do you know about Relationship Marketing and how do you go by it?

US: Relationship marketing is a marketing that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement. The goal of relationship marketing is to create strong, emotional customer connections to the product of a company that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion and information from customers that can generate leads.

CCD: Any appeal/suggestion to staff/management?

US: I am calling on the management to stop laying emphasis to paper qualification in the employment of technical staff, it should enrich its legal departments with enough lawyers so that electricity thieves will be duly prosecuted and lastly the company should invest on Prepaid Meters.

MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Management Should Create a Forum for Sharing Experiences

CCD: Abdulrahman Zayyad, you are the Supervisor Askolaye Service Center, tell us how you manage this place.

AZ: As a supervisor I oversee the activities of all staff under my service center. I make sure they do their work according to the company's laid down rules and ensure that customers get supply, receive their bills at the right time and pay their bills in full. 

CCD: What would you consider your highpoints since becoming a Supervisor?

AZ: One of the greatest things that I feel I have achieved is converting a Commercial customer to a Maximum Demand customer at Isah Kaita Feeder. A customer, B. T. Magaji, was a single-phase commercial customer; I converted him to a three-phase commercial customer and to a Maximum Demand Customer. 

Also, when I resumed duty in Askolaye Feeder on 17 August the previous month collection was 3.8million Naira and by end of the month I was able to collect 7.6 million Naira, which shows that we made a difference of 109%.

We have also been able to improve on our relationship with customers and by so doing we have been able to convert a lot of non-paying customers to paying customers. 

CCD: What are the challenges of manning a Service Center like yours?

AZ: The biggest challenge is the way we are being treated when we visit some customers; we are being treated with aggression.

CCD: The Company has just introduced a newly redesigned bill, how are the customers responding to it?

AZ: The new design has some good features even though there are some setbacks.  It comes with information relevant to the customer in a self-explanatory manner; for instance, it includes the name of the Marketer, Service Center, Feeder, energy consumed plus the VAT.

For the setback: the new bill does not include information on the customers' previous payment. This was why some customers who had no outstanding got bills showing that they have not paid. This situation caused a lot of problems.

CCD: As a Supervisor, how do you manage relationship with customers and the staff you work with?

AZ: As a leader you have to have so many abilities, and one of these, is ability to manage people. Sometimes, people come with problems that are personal while others are related to the job; I still have to show understanding and support. 

More so, we normally have meetings almost every day, be it personally or as a group. If any of my staff has an issue in his cluster, I will discuss with the individual so that we can both proffer a solution. 

For aggrieved customers, we make all necessary effort to explain their consumption to them, how we came up with the bill, how bills are being accumulated, how to clear their outstanding, where and how to lodge in complaints. That is how a cordial relationship is built.

CCD: Do you have your unique strategies in achieving the corporate objective of the Company?

AZ: For those of us at the supervisory level, all we need to do is adhere to the company's rules and regulations. I think there is nothing extra to add other than ensuring proper billing, that bills distributed are collected hundred percent, Pre-paid Meters are monitored and sensitizing the customers on relevant matters.

CCD: What advice do you have for management?

AZ: My advice to the management is that there should be a forum where we can share our experiences in the field especially the issue of security.

To my colleague I am appealing to each staff to do what is expected of him/her in order to take this company to greater heights because if this company succeeds it is not just the management that would take the credit, we will take the credit too and history will never forget us.