From CHARLES ONYEKWERE, ENUGU
Some stakeholders of MainPower Electricity Distribution Limited, MEDL, have called on the company to ensure frequent engagements to address issues rapidly.
The stakeholders made the call on Thursday in Enugu during the company’s ongoing Safety Week.
They also urged the company to continue to train and retrain its staff, especially field staff, on courteous and good customer relations.
The Chairman, Naija Inclusive Electricity Customer Advocacy Intervention, Mr Chinedu Ugwu, urged the management of MainPower to attend to complaints, particularly technical issues that had lingered for years.
Ugwu, whose Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, intervenes in electricity customers complaints in Enugu State, said, “Yes, we commend MainPower management for recently setting up the Quick Response Team, QRT, to attend to technical fault promptly.
“However, there is a backlog of complaints logged already that need to be cleared.
“It is only through constant stakeholders engagement at the state and district levels that customers can easily interface with management directly and for them to understand their complaints and pains.”
A customer, Mr Chris Ozobu, called on MainPower to improve on its customer relations, especially its field workers manner of approach to customers.
“Someone that is serving the public should be humane, friendly and speak to customers with the highest sense of responsibility and courtesy,” Ozobu said.
Another customer, Mr Anthony Nwele, urged MainPower to remove him and other people within the Maryland axis of Enugu from the estimated billing system.
Nwele noted that from January till date, the rate of epileptic electricity supply had been on the increase, while the estimated bill he received remained high.
Responding, the Managing Director of MEDL, Dr Ernest Mupwaya, said MainPower plans to install pre-paid meters to the estimated 75,000 unmetered customers in Enugu State within two years.
“We are planning through special arrangements and some interventions to provide pre-paid meters to 40,000 customers this year and another 40,000 in 2027.
“MainPower will make staff training and retraining more frequent for positive staff re-orientation and ensure closer supervision to ensure that what is learnt is practiced on the field.
“We will work out modalities for constant stakeholders and customers engagement in order to ensure robust feedback, leading to better services for our customers and enshrined international best practices,” he said.
He noted that the company had invested in fixing faults and installation breakdowns, assuring customers that with the QRT system, the company would reduce technical and installation repair time to improve customers experience.
Mupwaya said the state would soon experience a monumental increase in electricity supply when the state-initiated 660 mega-watt coal-fire power plant comes on stream, adding that: “It will be a huge electricity turnaround”.
