Thursday 6 August 2020

MEET THE STAFF SERIES

We Streamline Work Processes and Synergies With Other Departments to Curtail ATC&C Losses - Abubakar Sule
CCD: Can you briefly tell us about yourself?
ASS: My name is Abubakar Saleh Sule, I am an indigene of Kano State from Nasarawa Local Government. I obtained my degree in Geography from Kano State University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano State.
CCD: When did you join the company?
ASS: I joined the Company in 2019 as Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
CCD: What is your primary assignment?
ASS: As a PME Officer, my responsibilities, among others are:
A. To investigate, diagnose and proffer solutions on how to curtail ATC&C losses.
B. Detection of energy theft on ppm customers and booking the culprit(s) accordingly.
C. Streamlining work processes between departments and ensuring adherence to laid down procedures.
D. Ensure proper billing of penalized customers with strict adherence to NERC regulations.
E.  Ensure full and proper accountability of revenue generated from penalties and loss of revenue.
All these responsibilities require a high level of commitment and discipline; what sets  PME staff out from any other is their level of dedication, standard and integrity to uphold the Company’s reputation and reduce the level of energy theft which causes great loss and improve the collection efficiency.
 CCD: How do you manage your daily activities?
ASS: Our daily routine start with a briefing with team members on the task for the day, after which we set out for enumeration. The enumeration process is very vital to the Company as it keeps track of all our customers and helps us to recover displaced meters, reactivate customers with stolen or faulty meters to reduce loss of revenue and be able to capture customers on supply with no bill.
CCD: What skills do you use that helps you in capturing new customers?
ASS: In order to capture new customer, one has to be very careful as most often we find that most of the so-called “new captures” are existing customers who discarded their bills in order to avoid paying for their outstanding, so what we do in these cases is to establish a connection between the customer and the discarded bill and ensures he pays for his outstanding, this helps to reduce ATC&C losses.
CCD: What are your major challenges?
ASS: The major challenges encountered are majorly from erring customers who refuse to cooperate during our inspection but most often than not, we are able to overcome that challenge and get them to cooperate with us without any fuss using our customer service skills as we have learnt what customers want is to be listened to and take their concerns seriously. Generally, we have been getting good reception from the people of Kaduna State which make our job easier during the enumeration process.
CCD: Do you have any appeal to the staff and the Management?
 ASS: I will like to commend the Management for their effort in sustaining a comfortable working environment and their willingness to listen and proffer solutions whenever we come to them with any challenge. I will like to advice my fellow colleagues to take their job seriously and take advantage of the tools provided by the Company for self-development.