COVID-19: Ikeja Electric closes offices partially to safeguard customers, staff

… Assures continuous power supply, fault clearing

AgegePulse Magazine

 Ikeja Electric has announced that no physical transaction of business will take place across its offices in its franchise network for the next one week. This partial closure is in line with ongoing efforts nationwide to prevent further spread of the Corona Virus/COVID-19 and protect customers and staff of the Company.

The DisCo said the partial closure, which begins today (Tuesday March 24, 2020), is part of precautionary measures that have become necessary in order to safeguard the health of customers and staff by limiting their exposure to COVID-19.

The spread of the virus, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), is believed to be mainly through person-to-person contact which enables respiratory droplets from infected individuals who exhibit or later show symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, breathing difficulty, fever etc. to be transmitted to other persons.

Meanwhile, the Company has reassured customers that services including supply of electricity to customers, fault clearing, online channels for purchase of energy credits and payment of bills are unaffected by the temporary closure. Customers can continue to make enquiries or complaints to its Customers Care Team via email, live chat or phone calls.

Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ikeja Electric, Mrs Folake Soetan, noted that the safety and health of employees and members of the public is a priority to the organisation. Therefore, necessary preventive measures have be taken to avoid possible contact and spread of the virus.

According to her: “In line with our Customer First, Technology Now policy, all staff carrying out essential services will continue to deliver services in line with globally accepted safety and health requirements while staff carrying out non-essential services will hereby rely on our remote working channels throughout this period”.

She said, “As a responsible organisation, we hold our customers and staff in high esteem. So, their wellbeing and safety must be prioritized under the circumstance confronting our country and the entire world. The ongoing efforts to control the further spread of the COVID-19 virus is in line with efforts of governments globally to contain the virus.

“At this point, we all need to carefully observe precautionary measures and other safety protocols stipulated by government agencies and health organisations that will protect ourselves and loved ones from the virus. These involve, but not limited to, observing high hygiene by washing our hands often, using sanitizers where soap and water are not available, ensuring social distancing, avoiding handshakes and gatherings, as well as promptly contacting government agencies in the event of close persons displaying symptoms of the virus.

“Earlier in the month, we had set up specific control measures across our offices to ensure customers and staff are protected from possible exposure to the virus by providing sanitizers at the entrances and using hand-held infra-red thermometers to screen customers/visitors and staff. We are keenly following developments across the country and the advice of our government and health institutions as part of concerted efforts to safeguard everyone and to make sure our workplaces remain safe,” she added.

The DisCo noted that throughout this period, customer experience will not be impacted as it continues to deploy technology to provide seamless services and improved customer experience.

Customers can access their bills using the IE ebilling service, which is available viaeservices.ikejaelectric.com or and the IE Mobile app, which can be downloaded on the Android Playstore. By the adoption of this technology, the company have greatly reduced interaction between customers and employees as far as bill distribution and collection matter Customers can also make use of all available online channels to get their required services including making enquiries or complaints, payments of bills or recharge of prepaid meters and escalation of faults.

For complaints or enquiries, customers are advised to contact the Customer Care viacustomercare@ikejaelectric.com or 01-7000250, 09087940825. Other transactions can be done via quick teller, internet banking, mobile App banking, USSD *565*6# and Ikeja Electric website:www.ikejaelectric.com.

According to the DisCo, technical operations such as fault clearing will continue; hence all the field staff must continue to ensure that they are completely kitted for their daily operations.

Customers to get refund for prepaid meters procured under MAP scheme – Ikeja Electric

The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IE) has said it is designing a proposal to refund its customers for prepaid meters procured under the ongoing Meter Assets Provider (MAP) scheme.

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IE’s Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday.

Ofulue said that the proposal was, however, subject to the approval of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

NAN reports that a customer under the network currently pays N39, 765.86 for a single-phase meter and N72, 085.68 (VAT inclusive) for a three-phase meter.

Ofulue said the refund would either be in discounted tariffs or release of energy usage to cover the amount over a period of time upon approval by NERC.

He said:

“People are not aware that we intend to make this repayment. There are a lot of things that we are putting into considerations.

“The current tariff we have now is actually not cost-reflective but once we agree on a semi-cost reflective tariff, then we are going to discount the tariff for our customers so that they can enjoy the benefit of the scheme.”

Ofulue reiterated that IE currently had enough meters to meet its customers’ demand after the shortage that occurred between August and September 2019.

“During that period, there was an increase of about 35 percent in import duty and our meters were stuck at the port but that had been addressed.

“The scheme had to look for extra funds to clear the meters and so we have enough meters right now,” he said.

According to him, the only challenge faced by the scheme is the survey of the homes of those applying for prepaid meters and that has to be done as quickly as possible.

Ofulue said:

“This industry is a specialized field and you have to get the right equipment and people with the required skills to carry out the services.

“Once a customer is surveyed and advised to make payment, once the payment is made and it is confirmed, the customer will be metered within 10 working days.”

He said that the other problem faced in the installation of prepaid meters was that some customers do not indicate their references in their application form, which delayed the payment confirmation.

Ofulue said their failure to quote their account number or their application reference number would cause a snag in the system until it was resolved by the officials.

“We have always advised that whenever a customer makes payment, he should go back to our platform and upload their payment evidence @financemap/ikeja.com.

“When we have that information, we immediately use that evidence to reconcile your payment and your meter will be installed.

“On the average, each of our vendors – Mojec, New Hampshire and Conlog – installs about 1,500 prepaid meters weekly under the ongoing scheme,” he said.

He said that efforts were on to increase installation to about 3,000 per week.

Ofulue noted that over 60,000 customers had so far been metered under the MAP scheme, saying that IE hoped to meter all its customers by 2022.

Power: Benin Republic, Niger pay Nigeria $10m after disconnection threat

The Republics of Benin and Niger have paid $10.1m as electricity bill to Nigeria to avert being disconnected from their power source in Nigeria after the Federal Government threatened to disconnect debtors.

It was also learnt that the countries made the payment through their respective power firms, with NIGELEC of the Republic of Niger paying $3.79m, while the Community Electric du Benin of the Republic of Benin remitted $6.32m to Nigeria’s electricity market.

On July 11, 2018, The PUNCH reported that President Muhammadu Buhari decided to join operators in the power sector in calling on international customers receiving electricity from Nigeria to either pay their bills or be disconnected.

Nigeria sells power to the Republics of Togo, Niger and Benin, and classifies the West African countries as international customers.

Officials at the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing told our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday that the international customers, paying for the power received from Nigeria in dollars, owed the country, a development that had increased the financial indebtedness to Nigeria’s power generation companies.
To avert being disconnected, it was gathered on Thursday that Benin and Niger made some payments and that the payment by both countries was disclosed to operators in Nigeria’s electricity industry at the August 2018 power sector stakeholders’ meeting by the Market Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

This was also confirmed in a report that was presented to stakeholders at the meeting by the MO, which was obtained by our correspondent from the FMPWH.
On its dashboard on the summary of energy delivery in the month of June 2018, the MO stated that energy delivered to international customers and Ajaokuta Steel was 229,487.29 megawatts/hour.

Under bilateral trading, it stated that the quantum of energy sent out by power generation companies was 104,861.92MWh, while energy delivered to bilateral customers was 95,939.31MWh.

Figures on the dashboard showed that indigenous power distribution companies, as always, got the highest quantum of energy, 2,355,623.4MWh, from the Gencos in the month under review.

The MO further stated that part of the foreign exchange inflows from international customers had been disbursed to service providers in Nigeria’s power sector.

The indebtedness of international customers was also confirmed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in July, who, however, revealed that Buhari was working hard to ensure that the electricity debts by the country’s neighbours were cleared.

Fashola had also directed the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company to go ahead and collect its money from the international customers.

He said, “We issued disconnection notices and that is why I’m asking the NBET to go and collect your money because we have duties, obligations and international agreements with them as brother and sister nations.
“But that does not mean they will not pay us if they are defaulting. So, we have issued letters to them to pay their bills, and from time to time, they pay.

“There was a time one head of state came to visit President Buhari and little did I know that the real reason he came was to come and tell him that the (power) sector had issued a notice of disconnection to his country. And you may be interested to know that President Buhari simply told him to go and pay, otherwise we will disconnect you because we are also paying at home.”

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Ambode presents certificates to 1,500 retrained Artisans, Traders

…Orders MDAs To Engage Informal Sector In Executing Govt Projects, Contracts

 ...Vows Continuous Implementation Of Policies To Advance Sector

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday presented certificates to 1,500 artisans and traders in the State who were retrained on modular employability programme as part of efforts to scale up the informal sector with the view to making members meet up with current realities.

The beneficiaries drawn from various associations under the auspices of the Lagos State Council of Tradesmen and Artisans (LASCOTA), were solely trained by the State Government for enhanced productivity in a total of twenty-four trades including entrepreneurship, computer appreciation, writing business proposals, among others.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony and 8th Tradesmen and Artisans Day held at De Blue Roof, LTV 8 Compound in Ikeja, Governor Ambode said the role of artisans and traders in the pyramid of socio-economic development of the nation was very critical in achieving sustainable growth and overall prosperity of the people.

He said it was in recognition of such fact that his administration had shown commitment towards ensuring that the event was not only sustained eight years after, but also designed to be more rewarding.

Governor Ambode, who recalled various initiatives designed to scale up the informal sector such as the N25billion Employment Trust Fund (ETF), among others, assured traders and artisans in the State that government would continue to implement strategies and programmes to promote their businesses and create conducive environment for their operation.

He said: “Giving the strategic role of the informal sector in our economic development in this State, our administration has opened an online portal designed to facilitate interaction among artisans, customers/end-users and relevant stakeholders.

“It is our primary role to make it easy and convenient for people in need of high quality service to meet reliable, trusted and verifiable service providers. It is also aimed at enhancing the productivity, competitiveness, creativity and vitality of this sector.”

While expressing excitement with the fact that it was the tailors from the State that produced the academic gowns used for the graduation, the Governor said moving forward, the State Government would now start to officially engage traders and artisans on jobs that would improve their economy.

Speaking on specific requests made by LACOSTA, the Governor said: “As a start, we instruct the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment to see the capabilities and the opportunities that we can spread out from State jobs and contracts and give to our artisans.

“I am very happy to note that we have graduates among you and also graduates who are also your children. So, we hereby create an immediate opportunity through your associations to be able to recruit into key areas in the public service where we can need your services. These are not political promises, we keep our promises and we will fulfil all our promises,” Governor Ambode said.

While congratulating the artisans and traders for successfully undergoing the training, the Governor urged them to put all they have learnt to effective practice, and leverage on the endless opportunities of the strategic position of Lagos as one of the fastest growing economies in the world to be solution providers, just as he assured that the State Government would continue to provide and maintain the required infrastructure and conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

Besides, Governor Ambode launched a compendium of artisans in the State to boost the informal sector, and also inaugurated operational bus donated to LACOSTA by the State Government.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti said since the last edition of the event, Governor Ambode, as requested by LACOSTA, had already approved N12million annual subvention to the association and increased the number of beneficiaries in 2017 to 1500 from the 500 that were trained in 2016.

Also, LACOSTA President, Alhaji Nurudeen Buhari commended Governor Ambode for keeping his promise of scaling up the informal sector and prioritizing the interest of artisans and traders in the State. He said as promised by the Governor, many of their members have benefited from the ETF loan, among other fulfilled promises.