MEET THE STAFF SERIES

It Would Pay Us More To Increase Supply To MD Customers

CCD: Aliyu Sa'idu, you work in the Maximum Demand (MD) Unit, tell us what your typical day is like? 

A: Mostly, I do monthly meter reading, bills distribution, cash/drive collection, monitoring and all other aspects as it concerns MD customers.

CCD: What would you consider the most difficult part of managing Maximum Demand Customers?

A: One of the most frequent complaints is supply interruption. They mostly complain of non-supply/short hours of supply from their Feeders, which sometimes results in huge losses to them or sometimes when a power surge leads to damaged equipment. This, in many cases, has a resulted in delayed payment.

CCD: Which other class of customer do you cater to?

A: We only attend to MD customers and no other class of customer.

CCD: What would you consider your major achievement since you assumed duty?

A: One major achievement is maintaining a good relationship with our customers, which has resulted in prompt settlement of bills. 

CCD: How prepared is the MD Unit in meeting the 2-billion-naira target?

A: Of course, we can do it, there is huge potential and we are working towards harnessing it at the MD Unit. 

We have put strategies in place to make sure that the set target by the MD/CEO is not only realizable but also accomplished within the time frame. 

On our part, we would ensure timely reading of our Grid allocation and all our MD meters, proper documentation of all meter related issues, ensure timely billing, proper tariff placement of all our MD customers.

Other strategies include, prompt attendance to customers' complaints regarding metering, proper load assessment, analysis and periodic review of all high consumption customers; this would enable us to know if a customer needs to be converted to an MD customer.

We would also ensure that we mobilize our MD representatives to give disconnection notice as early as the middle of the month to enable the customers pay as quickly as possible so as to avoid disconnection.

 I believe all these would enable us to boost our collections.

I would also like to use this medium to advise my colleagues to be proactive and work with initiative on their day-to-day activities, as it will go a long way in reducing some of the losses we incur.

 They should shun all acts of indiscipline and corruption or anything capable of tarnishing the image of the company. They must also remember that there are new rules and regulations guiding the execution of any job, which must be strictly adhered to you if you are ready to stay and move forward together. 

CCD: The MD customers are no doubt the cash cows of the company, what do you think the management should do to improve revenue from this class of customers?

A: Management should look into those Feeders that solely supply MD meters and increase the hours of supply, as this would directly reflect on our revenue collection. When supply increases, the figures on the bills will increase, our ATC&C losses will reduce.