People Want Good Service Which We Must Deliver -BDRO Kebbi
The Frontline crew sat down with the BDRO Kebbi where he bears his mind on the operations of the company in Kebbi Region, the challenges confronting the Region and the secret behind the cordial and friendly relationship existing between the Company and Kebbi State Government. These and many other issues makes the Frontline this month...excerpts .
CCD- Sir, can we have your brief profile?
DS- My name is Dogara Saidu, I graduated from Ahmad Bello University, Zaria where I obtained my first Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. I also obtained a PGD in Electrical Engineering at Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi. I joined the former NEPA in 1999 as a Pupil Engineer, we under went two years compulsory training under the Generation, Transmission and Distribution respectively. After the pupillage, I was posted to Kaduna Zone. I was a Service Engineer, Distribution Manager and Business Manager at various times. After the privatization of the industry I was transferred to Barnawa from there to Kebbi Regional Office as Distribution Engineer that was 2016, I worked with Alh. Abubakar Ibrahim Hashim as my able BDRO after him I also worked with Stephen Ajayi and we stayed amicably. I was also assigned as acting BDRO for six months before we were called for interview.
CCD: You are one of the BDRO appointed recently after a rigorous interview process, how do you feel being among the two selected?
DS: Surely, I felt great; we went for interview where we meet with top management of the Company. So to me is another avenue for us to display our talent and experiences in improving the business.
CCD: How have you been coping with the challenges of this assignment?
DS: This is one of the challenges we took to our mind, but the vibrant colleagues here with me we make it happen. The mandate is not only to me alone, when we came on board the collection was around one hundred and eighty or there about; we look at the supply we are getting and revenue which is far below expectation, we improve it by almost thirty percent. I always believe in team work and transparency; let your colleagues know that you have confidence in their ability and you are ready to put them through, this will surely galvanise them and bring out the best in them. Team work is the key to achieving most of your set target if not all. We also analysed Kebbi which is predominantly rural and agrarian in nature and strategized on how to move from where we used to be, we made our customers to know that it is not business as usual, these and many more are the driving forces that took us to where we are now.
CCD: What is the performance of the Region in terms of collection Vis-à-vis the energy received?
DS: This is another big challenge, the energy we receive in Birnin Kebbi Region is not small, when we say 24hrs power supply is not a small energy compare to what we are collecting as revenue. We only make reasonable collection from our Green Feeders and some part of Yellow Feeders, but the Red Feeders are only giving just about 10%. So with this, you can simply say we are losing 70% from Yellow Feeders and 90% from Red Feeders and on Green Feeders we only collect 50%.
CCD: Record has shown that total customer population of Kebbi Area Office is 45 thousand, don’t you think that there are still many electricity consumers out there yet to be brought into the system, and if you agree with this narrative, what are you doing to bring such unregistered customers into the system?
DS: I agree that what we have on record is not the true reflection of the number of electricity users in the Region. Looking at population, there are still some consumers not captured by mere looking at the houses in Kebbi Regional Office, we should have more than fifty thousand customers on our data base and I believe with what we are doing, before the end of this year, we are going to record significant number on our data base, we are working on that very hard, any two houses that are sharing one service drop we will bill all the houses for them to pay their individual bills.
CCD: Our investigation also revealed that only 70% of customers billed response to payment, what do you think is the cause of this poor customer’s response and what are you doing to reverse the trend?
DS: As I have said earlier, if you look clearly only our Green Feeders that are responding to up to 50-60% and you see we are losing almost 40-50% of our revenue is not that these customers are not there but, because of the bad attitude of some Sales reps who are not seeing this business as theirs, if you disconnect a customer you need be very vigilant for them not to reconnect themselves or tap from their neighbours in some cases; in some areas they know it is no more government property but they will still do as they want, but such issues are now being address decisively. Another issue here is rural areas where you will find thirty to hundred customers using one service drop and some of them will even abundant their bills because they cannot afford to pay it. Couple with all such challenges we were able to improve our collection from where we meet it around 120m to 130m and with what we are doing before the end of this year we will be able to move our customers’ response to 70%
CCD: You are a qualified engineer, and now you are largely a business manager, how do you manage the demand of these two callings?
DS: In fact, I feel great. My background and the demand of the business has made me more innovative and flexible. When I came to Kebbi, I find out about nine local governments were out of supply and I took the challenge, I thought of how I can bring back these customers back into the network, I carried-out inspection in the site and came up with creative solution and within two weeks, supply was restored at Zero cost through recovery from other areas. We have also networked the whole feeders in which no customer will remain up to two hours without supply because of fault or any other related issues like vandalism; if we have problem with one substation, we definitely know how to supply them immediately. I have a very good team that supports me in this regard. We need to deliver excellent services to our customers and I want the customers to attest to Kaduna Electric’s commitment to discharging its obligations. That is why some people are saying Kebbi is the best Regional Office.
CCD: It is being canvassed in some quarters that the present regional offices as they are, are too wide for one BDRO to effectively manage, what is your take on this?
DS: Yeas I agree that some Regional Offices are two wide for one BDRO, because our business needs to go closer to our customers so, for you to achieve your outcome you really need to go closer to your customers and as well closer to your staff as head. You see like Kebbi if you want go and supervise areas like Yauri- Zuru axis it will take the whole day and that means you need to stay a while to oversee that axis. Problem of our people if they don’t see you often they will relax, these and many more reasons warrant us to go closer to our customers.
CCD: The Company is obviously having a good relationship with Kebbi State Government, what is the secret and what call do you have to other BDROs on how to improve relationship with critical stakeholders in their areas of operation?
DS: Well, there is no secrete, it is something practical. Electricity industry is service industry, what people want is good services. You as a service provider must be ready to render qualitative service always. Let your customers understand your business and be ready to attend to any problem with passion. One need to maintain and respect his integrity which is one of the goals of Kaduna electric, if they understand that all your mission is to provide service to them without any compromise they will respect you and the company at large. In Kebbi, we don’t have any issue with the State Government because they know I am always there for them; if they have any issue at whatever hour, I will be there to solve it and any moment they need our attention we definitely answer to their call.
Another advise to my colleagues BDROs is to ensure that your relationship with these politicians is purely professional and be humble always.
CCD: Sir, do you have any appeal or advice to the Management?
DS: My advice to the Management is motivation which the Company have already started like this issue of shining star and another one is training which will keep adding value to general outcome of the company.
To the staff, we should all own this company; we can do it by doing what is expected of us and give out our best for the development of our Company.
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