By Boluwaji Obahopo

LOKOJA—The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, has assured electricity consumers in its zone of a transparent and fair billing for the services rendered.

Team Leader, Client Relationship and Customer Services of the company, Dr. Halidu Balami, gave the assurance while briefing members of the Kogi State House of Assembly.
The State House of Assembly in a letter dated August 28, 2014, and addressed to the Lokoja Business Manager of the company, invited the AEDC to appear before it to “shed light on issues related to billings and payment of electricity bills by electricity consumers in Kogi State.”

According to Balami, “most of the problems experienced by the power consumers is due to the fact that we inherited five different vending platforms after privatization in November last year. But the platforms have already been audited and the AEDC will soon migrate to a new efficient one to support flexible e-payments, such as through POS, internet, as well as SMS (electronic wallet), in the next eight weeks.

He also listed inadequate, weak and obsolete infrastructure resulting in epileptic power supply, unwillingness by some customers to pay for electricity, and vandalism as some of the post privatization challenges the company faced with.