MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Arrest, Prosecution of Vandals Have Reduced Revenue Leakages

CCD: Let start with the background, who is Ismail Ishaq?

Ismail: Ismail Hamza Ishaq is a simple and hardworking person who was born in the 70s in Kaduna. I had my primary school education in Zaria, Secondary School education was in Sokoto while my tertiary education was in Minna.

 I have worked elsewhere before joining Kaduna Electric and I am grateful for where I am today.

CCD: Can we discuss your role in Admin and Security?

Ismail: Administration & Security cover a lot of aspects in our operations as a company. I am a   Head of Group in my department. I oversee Administration, Security, Facility Management, Environment Management, Rent Management, Protocols & Governmental Affairs, Logistics, Hospitality & Event Management units.

I supervise and make sure that every officer carries out their duties diligently and effectively. I also receive reports from team members and sometimes assist the Head of Department in carrying out some functions. I also have other roles or functions that often come up unexpectedly which I am required to execute.

CCD: This is the beginning of a new year; how would you rate yourself in terms of how much you have achieved in 2018?

Ismail:  We give gratitude to God that we have achieved about 65% of what we set out to do. A few of our successes are: Security cover and support in communities during the withdrawal of supply and disconnections to Distribution Sub Stations.

This has gone a long way in encouraging communities to pay for energy consumed. Also, we solicited support from the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State who was very supportive by providing us useful suggestions and guidance.

We successfully harmonized and deployed armed security personnel of the Nigeria Police Mobile Force (PMF) to all regional offices of Kaduna Electric. This was timely and has helped in reducing the threats received from youths and demonstrations to our offices especially at Barnawa and Makera Regional Offices.

It is also worthy of note to mention the successful arrest and prosecution of a notorious king-pin in Kafanchan Regional Office who specializes in vandalizing electrical installations. His arrest has reduced the activities of vandals within the region.

We have also had community engagements on education to protect our installations.

Kaduna Electric successfully commissioned a new metering laboratory for metering department, fully rehabilitated and refurbished at old Doka/Stores area which is in partial fulfilment of NERC regulations for the Meter Asset Provider MAP program.

To our credit also is the newly commissioned Malali service centre which has been fully equipped to standards with renovated training rooms and a soon-to-be installed Projector.

We hosted the 28^th Power Sector Stake holders meeting which was successful, we were part of the team that worked on the successful execution of the Strive Workshop.

CCD: How specifically would you say that your department is helping to block revenue leakage?

Ismail:  Specifically, we ensure the arrest and prosecution of power assets vandals who cause colossal damage to our network and impacting negatively on our revenue generation.

We also investigate and bring to book staff involved in fraudulent activities which also results in huge losses not only in revenue generation but also erode public confidence.

We also carrying out community engagements whereby our customers are enlightened about their responsibilities of paying for the energies consumed and also of taking ownership of electricity installations in their communities by protecting our equipment.

CCD: What do think the company can do to reduce the cases of electrocution?

Ismail:  Enlightenment, creating safe working conditions and monitor and discourage unsafe acts by staff and customers. We encourage them to report unsafe acts and analyze the results to prevent a recurrence.

CCD: How well is your department synergizing with the other units like Enforcement Team, Disconnection Unit and other units that drive the marketing activities of the Company?

Ismail:  We provide support in terms of security and we also follow up on reported cases of defaulting customers to initiate prosecution in the courts of law.  Like I earlier said, our Administration & Security Officers (ASOs) provide the required security cover for volatile areas and we give counsel on the appropriate times to carry out the disconnections to avoid being harassed or attacked on the field.

As you are aware, the company recently withdrew service from Distribution Sub-Stations in all its franchise states with poor revenue generation performance. This resulted in some form of resistance and in some cases, demonstrations in other areas. Our advice and spearheading   community engagements with all stakeholders and representatives of the affected communities have proven to be effective to the success of these operations.

CCD: Any appeal or suggestion to other staff and management?

Ismail:  To other staff, team work is the key word.  It is important to follow up on assigned task to ensure a logical conclusion.

As employees too, we should be proactive and report any act of vandalism or suspected movements around any of our installations to avoid vandalism.

To management, I will urge them to have faith in us; as we are ready to work and bring about the needed change.

 Thank you.