Friday 23 August 2019

KADUNA ELECTRIC NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2ND EDITION


Kaduna Electric, Kano Disco Team-up to Stem Financial Malfeasance.

By Ruqayya Hamisu

The Kaduna Electric and Kano Disco’s Audit teams have pledged to collaborate with one another to build and strengthen the Capacity of the two audit teams for greater productivity and efficiency.
The assertion was made during a 3-day knowledge sharing and interactive session between the officials of the audit Units of the two Companies held at the Corporate Head Quarters of Kaduna Electric two weeks ago. 
The program which was co-chaired by Jamilu Salisu Ahmed, Head, Audit Unit, Kano Electricity Distribution Company and Alhaji Abubakar Diggi, Head, Audit Unit, Kaduna Electric, with the theme “ the Road so far”.
The collaborative effort was aimed at helping each other to tackle leakages that both Companies are facing”, it was further stated.
Mr Salisu shared operational, financial and investigative tips with the audit teams from the two companies. He said “auditors have to identify weakness in the control system and be able to strengthen them. The Audit Unit should be fully in charge of all records of transaction, audit planning, execution, and follow up are the procedures for effective auditing”.
While the Kaduna Electric Head of Audit, Alhaji Abubakar Diggi shared operational, financial and fraud related activities with the two teams.
Mr Abubakar said ‘’the first motive is how to help in minimizing fraudulent activities particularly in the Commercial Department. He advised that auditors must always make sure that all transaction are well documented and backed with relevant approvals and authorization for control purpose. Cash collections and Bank verification must be done monthly to ensure all revenue collected are remitted accordingly”.
He disclosed that each Area Office is attached to a particular auditor and the auditors are rotated every 2-3 months to another Area Office, The unit also vets all customers account adjustment documents before recommending any adjustment. He advised the audit teams to imbibe the culture of going out to conduct sample checks at different feeders as it has really helped in detecting malpractices.
Other issues discussed by both parties were:  zero tolerance to Nepa two who are mostly under sales representatives and suggested that when such cases are found, the sales reps should be replaced by the Nepa two, that will stop staff from employing them. Another suggestion made the auditors is whistle blow among staff and non-staff, and should be followed up. That will really help in discovering a lot of fraud activities in the companies.



Kaduna Electric Takes Safety Campaign to Communities

By Asma’u Muhammad

In an effort to avert the occurrence of electrical accidents within its operational area, the Management of Kaduna Electric has taken safety awareness Campaign to rural communities.
The first lap of the safety campaign train, led by the Area Manager, Doka Area Office, Ibrahim Danbatta was at Kwanan Farakwai in Igabi LGA of Kaduna last week where lectures, live demonstrations, questions and answers and other educative and enlightenment activities took place.
Addressing the community, the Area Manager, Doka Area Office, Ibrahim Dantbatta charged community leaders and other leaders of thought to always report unusual scenario, accidents or damaged to power supply equipment to the nearest Kaduna Electric Office for necessary and timely repairs to avert accident.
He noted that power supply installations like poles, high voltage, over lead lines and conductors could suffer damages as a result of man-made or natural phenomenon like heavy rain or wind storm and only the timely intervention of trained personnel of Company would avert the occurrence of accident.
He warned that high voltage power lines are very dangerous when they come to contact with human beings, animals and plants and should be aoided as much as possible.
He appealed to communities to report cases of conductors lying on the ground and should never assume that such conductors are ‘dead’.
Malam Ibrahim also called on the community to always maintain the statutory right of way and avoid erecting structures, trading or sitting under power lines so as to prevent the occurrence of any unfortunate incidences.
The climax of the sensitization exercise was a presentation on safety by the HSE Officer, Mustapha Aliyu where he explained safety rules and how to rescue an electrocuted victim. The team also took time off to visit and commiserate with a victim of electrical accident in the community.



AM Makera Charges Communities on Bills Payments

By Ruqayya Hamisu

The Area Manager, Makera Area Office, Engr. Umar Farouk has called on Unguwan Romi, Kakuri GRA and Gwagwada communities to ensure regular and timely settlement of their bills for better services, just as he advocated energy conservation culture among the communities.
Engr. Farouk made the assertion during community and stakeholders engagement and sensitization program held in the three communities recently.
‘’The efficiency of the Company is directly tied to the response of the customers towards payments of bills”, he said.
The Area Manager also called on the communities to embrace the forth-coming Meter Asset Provider scheme (MAP) so as to have their premises metered.
According to him, “the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved the implementation of MAP scheme and very soon the Company shall commence meter roll-out through the MAP scheme; I hereby enjoin you to embrace the scheme so as to put rest, the controversy surrounding estimated billing”.
A community leader from Hayin Katafawa, Sarki Danladi applauded the Company for initiating the engagement with the customers and suggest that such meetings should be made a regular event. Cross section of customers from the communities asked questions and sought clarification on issues not clear.  





Thursday 22 August 2019

MEET THE STAFF SERIES


Customers Enumeration Should be a Continuous Exercise - Okoye Dubem

CCD: Can we have your brief profile?                                            
OD: My name is Okoye Dubem. I am the Service Center Manager of Gwagwada Service Center in Gonin gora. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Ebonyi State University (2011) and I am currently undergoing a Masters Degree course in Business Administration at NDA. I’m a self-motivated individual; attracted to work environment that will expose me to more skills and knowledge acquisition. I am always reaching to work environment with an opportunity to learn and develop a diverse skill sets.

CCD:  What are your primary responsibilities?                                  
OD: My primary responsibilities are; Customer relationship management; elimination of energy theft by being responsible for all activities; revenue generation and protection (meeting the cash collection set targets of the company); proper classification on tariffs of customers; monitoring new customer acquisition/enumeration within the service center; preparation of  daily, weekly and monthly reports, etc.

CCD: What is it like managing a Service Center?                                                                      
OD: The following attributes has been my basic management tool for managing my center; these are decision making with a good observation skill, having a fast moving (can do) attitude, being constantly aware of health and safety issues; positive attitude towards competition and being neutral towards matter arising at our work place. 
CCD: As a Service Center Manager, what can you say are your major challenges?                                                                                               
OD: Resolving conflict in the work place, adapting to constant changing policies and managing performances of my team members etc.

CCD: What do you think is the most difficult aspect of managing a Service Center?                                                                                                                       
OD: I happen to manage a high customer base Service Center, my major challenge is trying to educate and inform the customers on the paradigm shift in the electricity industry and defending distributed energy and how it affects their Billing. This challenge has also done good to me because I have been able to handle large crowds and communicate effectively in cases of any resistance or protest.

CCD: What would you consider as your major achievement since you assumed duty?                                                                          
OD: My major achievement would be my increase collections as a result of how I and my team have been able to increase the population of customers in my feeder by several measures. We have been able to have an addition of over 1000 new captured customers over the past 10 months of my leadership.

CCD: In your opinion what do you think can be done to enhance the growth of the Company?                                                                                        
OD: Growth for us has to mean growth in our profit margin and reduction in losses, apart from more investments, the growth of Kaduna Electric is to constantly identify uncaptured customers (energy thieves, consumers) in our network. This is a menace that is eating up our revenue base as an organization, it increases our losses and undermines our efficiency.                 

CCD: Any appeal or suggestion to Management or Staff?                       

OD:Enumeration exercise should be a continuous assignment; increase in staff remuneration/benefits and creation of more disconnection teams to meet our customer population explosion etc. Staff should show passion for our job to help us achieve more.





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Thursday 8 August 2019

Meet The Staff Series



A Good SR Must Have Daily Target, be Diplomatic 
With Customers - Jamil Yusuf  
CCD:  Can you briefly tell us a bit about yourself?
JSY: My name is Jamil Suleiman Yusuf, I am a Sales Representative at Kakuri Service Center under Makera Area Office. I studied Banking and Finance at Abubakar Tafawa University, Bauchi. I joined the service of Kaduna Electric September 2015.
CCD: As a Sales Representative what exactly do you do?


JSY: One of the major activity we do is cash collections, we ensure our customers pay their bills promptly and follow up the defaulters. We engages in personal marketing once, twice and thrice; we then follow up for disconnection. We also do enumeration to know our customers and capture new ones, we also ensure they are billed appropriately.  
CCD: How do you go about assignment to ensure you meet your target?    
JSY: To meet my target, I have a strategy of personal marketing, i.e. Meeting the customers one on one to discuss how they are going to make their payment base on their consumption.  I always look at my monthly target, then divide it by the number of working days in the month, that will be my daily benchmark. With this, my concern shall always be to meet or even surpass my daily target. 
CCD: Is there any challenges you encounter in discharging your duty?
JSY: Yes, we face a lot of challenges, energy theft; we have a lot that are involve in such act, but what we normally do is to disconnect them but when it get out of hand, we  talk to the feeder Manager. We also have those that no matter what you do, they won’t pay. Here in Kakuri Service Centre our challenges are limited. We resolve the energy theft by disconnecting.

CCD: In a place where by you have a customer who consume your energy and is not willing to pay, how do you handle such customers?
JSY: In such situation, after the disconnection, we talk to them; give them reasons why they should be paying their bills; we let them know the effect of perpetual default on the value chain; how the energy we supply to them is generated, transmitted and ultimately distributed and how we as a Company need to pay for energy supplied to us. We let them see the reason why they should pay, we
approach them
Nicely, a lot of people do reason with nice approach, because when both parties are hot, it won’t solve the problem. If they are hot, we talk to them calmly, but if they insist on not paying, we go ahead and disconnect. So, it is combination of diplomacy and some reasonable force.
CCD: Every marketer has his/her achievement, what do you consider as you major achievement?
JSY: My major achievement is detecting energy theft in my own area. There was a time I went to a house, I actually discovered they were on prepaid meter and where giving the hole area water for free, I immediately checked the app and I discovered that they only vends 2-3 thousand naira monthly, I called the attention of the engineers to check the meter and discovered it was by passed. They paid for loss of revenue, and meter penalty.
CCD: What was the total customer population in your cluster when you came on board?
JSY: It was two hundred and eighty three for my cluster and is now around three hundred. In terms of collection, it has never dropped down.
CCD: What suggestion do you have to Management or Staff?
JSY: For the Management, I feel they should increase our welfare and they should understand we do face challenges; we need assistance from them like when it comes to extreme energy theft, we need their hands in assisting us. To my colleagues, we should keep working hard, the sky is our limit.