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Tag: efficiency

  • Saraki sacked 100 aides ‘to guarantee efficiency’

    Saraki sacked 100 aides ‘to guarantee efficiency’

    Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki sacked 100 of about 200 of his aides to ensure efficiency, it was learnt yesterday.

    Those disengaged were not necessarily aides inherited from a former Senate President, Senator David Mark, according to Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) Yusuph Olaniyonu.

    Olaniyonu, who spoke to reporters yesterday in Abuja, noted that the measure became necessary in line with the restructuring agenda of Saraki.

    He explained that two years was enough for the Senate President’s Office to determine the aides, who could be retained and those who had not added value to the office.

    It was gathered that the exercise should have been carried out on May 30, but it was shifted for unexplained reasons.

    The exact number of those affected was not disclosed as Olaniyonu asked to be given time to establish the figure.

    It was also gathered that “more unproductive aides would also be disengaged very soon to ensure that only those useful would be retained”.

    Olaniyonu said: “I am here to discuss this issue of restructuring in the office of the Senate President. Some of our colleagues called me to clarify what happened.

    “It was made known since four months ago that a comprehensive staff review exercise was going on in the office of the Senate President. It was just concluded a few days ago and the purpose of the exercise is to reposition the office to improve on service delivery to improve on his ability to deliver on the agenda of the 8th Senate.

    “We have served for two years and this is a long time enough to determine, who is good enough to continue in the last phase of the service.  You know the Senate has just about 22 months to its expiration.

    “It is an exercise that has now been concluded and we can determine who is good enough to continue, who needs to give way and who may likely come in.

    “So at the end of the day, decisions have been taken on three sides. There are some members of staff who by their performance in the last two years have been deemed fit to continue and those ones are still there.

    “There is also a second category of people who were seconded from the National Assembly Service Commission to the office of the Senate President and in this exercise, some of them were told to revert back to bureaucracy where they were from the beginning.

    “Then there is a third set who have been removed obviously maybe because they were found not to have met the expectation of their offices or who are not helping enough in the function of the office.

    “So you see that actually it is a positive one not a punitive measure. It was meant to reposition the office to show that the office is more strengthened.”

  • GTBank wins six laurels at EPIS efficiency awards

    GTBank wins six laurels at EPIS efficiency awards

    Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has won six awards at this year’s Electronic Payment Incentive Scheme (EPIS) awards organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

    The lender also had the highest number of the total awards presented to the financial institutions, Fin-techs, merchants and other stakeholders in the electronic payment incentive scheme.

    The EPIS Efficiency awards was established to recognise and celebrate financial institutions, merchants and other stakeholders at the forefront of driving electronic payment in Nigeria. Among the awards won by GTBank are the Best Customer Experience Award (Electronic Payment Platform Experience). The lender won in this category for achieving the highest level of overall customer satisfaction in the delivery of electronic payment services to customers.

    It also won the Cashless Driver: Instant Payments for its outstanding performance in recording the highest transaction count on the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) Platform and the Cashless Driver: Point of Sale (POS) Issued Cards’ Transactions for having the highest Point of Sale (PoS) transaction count on the National Central Switch with Issued Payment among others.

    GTBank also won the award for Instant Payments Transaction Efficiency; for achieving the highest transaction count in Point of Sale (PoS) terminals through the National Central Switch (NCS) Platform, the Point of Sale Card Transaction Efficiency; for the Bank’s outstanding performance in recording the highest level of efficiency in card payments on POS terminals connected to the National Central Switch  and the award for the Electronic Data Rendition Compliance and Integrity for the Bank’s outstanding performance in ensuring customer data integrity and compliance to CBN mandated submissions.

  • LCCI holds public-private dialogue on port efficiency

    LCCI holds public-private dialogue on port efficiency

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), in collaboration with the Financial Derivatives Company, an economic consultancy firm, is set to hold a Public-Private dialogue on Port Efficiency & Maritime Sector Roadmap in Nigeria. In a statement made available by LCCI, it said the objective is to design a roadmap for the transformation of the Nigerian maritime sector.

    The Stakeholders’ forum, which is billed to hold today by 9:30am in, Lagos, is expected to bring together key government agencies, major players at the ports, importers, exporters and other stakeholders to discuss the current state of the ports and proffer solutions to many problems militating against the growth and development of the sector and improve ease of doing business.

    LCCI Maritime Ports Research conducted in the third quarter of this year said the efficiency of port operations is a major driver of trade and economic activities across countries. It regretted that users and operators at the  ports have been facing lingering challenges and bottlenecks.”

    It further stated that improving ports governance for greater efficiency has major implications for the development of non-oil sectors at this time. It noted that growth and promotion of trade and economic activities could only be pragmatic, when economies thrive to provide a conducive and friendly environment.

    It reiterated that public authorities and the private sector have come to the realisation that the starting points for activating the diversification objective of the present government is fixing the ease of doing business at the nation’s ports.

  • How TCN can be more effective, by workers

    How TCN can be more effective, by workers

    Electricity workers have listed two options for making the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) more effective.

    In the last four years, TCN has been under Manitoba Hydro International (MHI), a  foreign management company. When its contract  expired, it was extended by one year by the government, last year.

    The Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) suggested a re-composition of the MHI counterpart management team and injection of new technocrats from the sector in areas that require strengthening.

    SSAEAC’s President-General  Mr Chris Okonkwo also suggested that MHI and Nigerian counterparts should form a new structure.

    In the third option, the union suggested that MHI functions as advisers to the Nigerian management team.

    He also called on the government to revise the cost component of MHI contract and ensure an upward review of the remuneration of Nigerian management team.

    It would be recalled that in a memo it forwarded to the Presidency recently, SSAEAC  called for outright transfer of management of TCN to  a reconstituted Nigerian management team.

    Its position was premised on alleged poor performance of the foreign management contractor; perception of wastages of resources due to non-performance; lack of clear Key Performance Indicators and lack of appreciable change in operational challenges from commencement of contract (system collapse, poor funding, process bottlenecks, among others)

    Okonkwo said the union was giving the additional options in view of the possible misrepresentation of the first and preferred position of SSAEAC, which is now offering more options to widen government’ choice in taking  informed  decision on TCN.

    Okonkwo  said: “One option is to have TCN HQ structure collapsed to have one MD/CEO (no MD TSP, MD ISO) with the following structure: MD/CEO, ED (Tech. Service), ED (Market Operations), ED (System Operations), ED (Human Resources) and ED (Finance and Accounts) –General Managers and AGMs will fall under the EDs except for those to report to the MD/CEO.

    “The structure of TCN with MD/CEO TCN, MD TSP and MD ISO may also be used.However, it could be suspended to achieve some measure of targets by compressing it as suggested above, without loss of positions,’’ he said.

    He  listed  the problems impeding the growth of TCN to include poor budgetary funding for completion of a ring grid by constructing/completing critical lines to stem system fragility; poor tariff for wheeling of electricity; NERC’s  indisposition  to good tariff for TCN using same considerations for GenCos and DisCos; One-sided orders against TCN in favour of other stakeholders by NERC for instance; TCN surcharge for low energy delivery without corresponding sanction for GenCos for low generation and DisCos for rejecting loads and  surcharge of higher Transmission Loss Factor (TLF) without corresponding reward for TLF below benchmark of 8.05 per cent.

  • Enhancing FRSC efficiency

    Enhancing FRSC efficiency

    •We commend the Federal Govt for providing the corps with 283 vehicles

    To whom much is given, much is expected in return”. That would have been the message President Muhammadu Buhari was passing to the leadership of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Monday, during the commissioning of newly acquired 283 operational vehicles for the corps in Abuja. He was represented at the occasion by the Minister of Interior, Lieutenant Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau (Retd).

    The president had directed FRSC officials to ensure strict enforcement of road traffic rules and regulations. He expressed sadness over the unnecessary loss of lives on our highways due to violation of traffic rules, especially by prominent citizens. He was also worried about the poor handling of cargo containers during haulage, many of which had led to serious accidents on the roads, as well as overloading of vehicles with animals, cargoes and passengers, especially by commercial vehicle operators, a thing capable of reducing the longevity of our roads and safety of passengers. “There are numerous instances where poorly handled cargo containers have fallen off their haulage trucks on hapless road users. This phenomenon has contributed to several avoidable deaths every now and then,” he said.

    These are good observations by the president and it is not that the FRSC officials do not know that these are their responsibilities. But, it is just as well that they be reminded that having been assisted with some of the required logistics, they have no excuse not to be efficient in the performance of their duties. In other words, we expect to see better compliance with road traffic rules now that the corps has additional 283 operational vehicles, including ambulances, patrol vehicles, tow trucks and administrative vehicles, in line with the government’s desire to ensure safety and security of the citizens on our roads and minimise road carnage.

    We share in the president’s optimism that it would not be business as usual on our roads, henceforth.

    However, there are some other requirements needed to facilitate the jobs of the FRSC as well as reduce the trauma of accident victims. The Federal Government should establish functional and well equipped trauma centres on its highways while state governments should consider same for their roads. The purpose is to stabilise accident victims pending when they are taken to hospitals for proper medical attention. Many accident victims had needlessly bled to death in the absence of such centres.

    The corps has a lot to do by way of public enlightenment. We acknowledge that it has been conducting various programmes, especially for commercial vehicle operators like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), among others; it should extend same to other road users. The officials should study accident-prone zones with a view to manning them more effectively.

    We also expect the FRSC officials to bring to government’s attention dangerous spots on the highways. Since they are usually on the roads, they know where such death traps are and would do well to inform the government about  them on time before any harm is done.

    As President Buhari noted, road safety is not the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government. State governments, corporate organisations and private individuals have responsibility in this regard. It is gladdening that in response to the president’s directive, the FRSC has commenced the training and certification of convoy drivers to minimise road traffic crashes involving the government drivers. These people need such training because they often assume that they are kings on the roads because of the personalities they drive. Unfortunately, death or road crash is no respecter of status. We have had many instances of government functionaries who died in road accidents.

    All said, we hope the FRSC officials would make judicious use of the new operational vehicles as well as their other facilities, realising that they were procured with the tax-payers’ money.

    We commend the Federal Government for the gesture and hope that it would not relent in its support to the corps in order to enhance its efficiency.

  • NNPC: Unbundling the behemoth for efficiency

    NNPC: Unbundling the behemoth for efficiency

    The unbundling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Federal Government raised a lot of dust recently with oil workers’ unions declaring war against the government thus further exacerbating the lingering fuel crisis. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf and John Ofikhenua in this report examine the intrigues, drama that informed the decision to cut the nation’s oil corporation to size.

    THAT the Federal Government has unbundled the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) is no longer news. What is however instructive is that a combination of factors which border on the superficial to the complex largely informed the decision to break the once mighty behemoth into manageable sizes.

    A horse of recall

    Not to forget, the Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu while speaking at the 25th Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum in Abuja hinted that the NNPC would soon be unbundled into 30 profit-making companies with separate Managing Directors.

    He said, “For the first time, we are unbundling the subset of the NNPC to 30 independent companies with their own Managing Directors. Titles like Group Executive Directors are going to disappear and in their place you are going to have Chief Executive Officers and they are going to take responsibilities for their titles. At the end of the day, the CEO of an upstream company must deliver an upstream result.”

    Expectedly, within a week, Kachikwu made good his promise when he announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved that NNPC be unbundled into seven new divisions. Five of these are core business divisions namely Upstream, Downstream, Midstream, Gas & Power Marketing and Refineries & Ventures. Two others, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance & Accounts are service-oriented divisions. Kachikwu announced the names of the new CEOs to head each division. Two days later NNPC announced new appointments that include the heads of all the subsidiary companies, making it to the 30 business units that Kachikwu earlier promised.

    A chain of reactions

    The decision to unbundle the NNPC was a bitter pill the oil workers unions were not prepared to swallow and naturally they didn’t hide their disdain for what they described as a most ‘unwise’ decision. Thus the two powerful oil workers’ unions, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers [NUPENG] and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria [PENGASSAN] launched an industrial action. They closed down NNPC’s headquarters and its offices nationwide, saying they were not consulted before the major policy was announced.

    PENGASSAN’s Acting General Secretary Lumumba Okugbawa said, “We do not accept unilateral and arbitrary restructuring. The minister cannot restructure NNPC without carrying all stakeholders along. The minister cannot run the industry as a private estate…With such a massive decision-making, a lot of things would be affected, particularly its implication on workers interest. We are unaware of what is happening. It is not fair that the workers are hearing about the restructuring in the media just like every other person. If the minister says he wants to restructure NNPC, has he repealed or amended the NNPC Act of 1977? What happens to the PIB (Petroleum Industry Bill), which has NNPC restructuring as one of its key objectives?”

    Kachikwu’s answer to labour was that “oil workers have nothing to fear as the exercise has a zero sum in terms of job loss. The principle of restructuring approved by the president is that nobody loses work. I do not have the mandate of the president to create a job loss situation but to try to ensure that everyone gets busy, unless for reasons of bad staff performance and fraud. There is no mass attempt to let people go.”

    A volte face

    Not prepared for the barrage of criticisms that attended the decision to unbundle the NNPC, Kachikwu soon caved in under pressure and made a volte face, saying the federal government had not unbundled the corporation.

    Speaking with state house correspondents in Abuja, the minister of state said the Federal Government only restructured the corporation for the sake of efficiency.

    “We have not unbundled NNPC. We had a press conference yesterday where I explained this. What we have simply done is reorganisation,” he said.

    “We have five business entities focused on business: upstream, downstream, refineries, gas and power that are there before. There is also ventures that capture all our little companies that were not having proper stewardship.

    “They are run by individuals who report to the GMD. The NNPC is still a whole. There is nothing new that has happened.

    “I have tried to explain this and I am sure the NNPC workers are members of the family; they will understand. We are going to have a meeting, and they will be made to understand. Perhaps the engagement has not been good enough.

    “NNPC has not been unbundled in the sense of breaking up NNPC into distinct institutions. I am concerned. I don’t want the industry shut down. I am sure we are going to resolve the issues very soon.”

    Real reason NNPC was unbundled

    For years the received wisdom out there had always been that the NNPC is a conduit pipe for siphoning funds by unscrupulous public servants in active collaboration with their accomplice in the organsied private sector.

    These select powerful cliques who have since earned the infamous sobriquet ‘oil cabal’ held the nation by the jugular thereby strangulating the nation’s economy. Everybody talked about these cabal in fear, even former President Goodluck Jonathan in a hand wriggling gesture expressed his administration’s seeming helplessness to deal with these power cabals.

    The Nation can authoritatively report that at the centre of the decision to unbundle the NNPC was to put the activities of these economic saboteurs in check.

    Kachikwu decided to go the whole hog to weed out the bad eggs in the system. After seeking Buhari’s approval to weed away those that supervised the rot in the corporation-hence the first removal of the executive directors last year.

    At the end of last year, Mr. President had added another feather to his cap, making him the Minister of State for Petroleum, a position that further fortified him with the assurance that his principal was happy and convinced that he is on the right track.Unsatisfied with the leftover and still poised to accomplish his mission of zero tolerance for sleazy, he furthered shook-up the personnel that manned the affairs of the NNPC and created different units.

    The Nation however learnt that the change was to ensure that those that must have perfected tactics for sharp practise in their divisions were removed from the positions.

    Another reason was for him to get those that will be loyal to him that will certainly assist him to deliver on his mandate, it was also gathered.

    The source said: “It is natural that you will want to work with those that you can trust and sure that will be loyal to you for you to deliver good result. For instance, it was Kachikwu that redeployed the former Managing Director of PPMC, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, as Manager Retail Services, NNPC.

    “The woman also removed virtually all the old staff from their positions in her quest to groom loyal staff, irrespective of what the old staff had to offer in their previous positions.”

    Besides, our correspondent learnt that the minister basically used the reshuffling to whittle down the influence of some of the executive directors that could influence whatever malpractice in the divisions or units.

    To effect the change and ensure no one man wielded too much power and influence, Kachikwu unbundled the behemoth called NNPC to about seven “autonomous business units,” and about 20 ventures and now allows the existence of a very lean headquarters.

    On his own, he attributed the unbundling and restructuring of the corporation to the realization that it was over-staffed and instead of laying-off the workers, government had to introduce new units for them to work and actually earn their salary.

    According to him, with their skills in the new units, they will be able to build their careers in the sector.

    He explained, “And why are we doing this because the analysis is that all the analysis done in terms of the number of staffing that we have, it shows that we are quite over-staffed.

    “So, the only way you can do that is to create work so that anybody who is in the system (we don’t what anybody coming to read newspapers) have something they are doing and they are earning money.

    “And as we are doing that we remembered suddenly that we have adequate staff to man and we are not really as over-staffed as we thought initially. This took some months of work to bring this out. Some of these ideas were the ideas that I created but consultants took them and worked the process.

    “So the principle of restructuring which is approved by Mr. President is that nobody loses work for now. The environment is just too thirsty for you to throw people out of the place. Nobody is losing work.

    “But people are going to get busy in respective business anywhere and it is point for those that want to prove a career to get skills and rise up and go and drive those companies. NNPC is still a whole it is not a different company. It is simply divisional break up.

    “The whole idea is to focus everybody that it is no longer an administrative role. It is no longer a coordination role. It is a business focus role. You have to deliver.”

    Although the staff were apprehensive that the worst was yet to come, The Nation learnt that the decision to transfer them to new units was never communicated to them via a memo as they only read the decision in newspapers.

    An insider said: “they were all surprised that they only got to know of the posting via The Nation publication.”

    What’s in a name?

    Many analysts are however of the opinion that the changes brought about by Kachikwu are largely cosmetic as what he has tried to do is not any different from what the last administration did.

    Reacting to the new changes at the NNPC, Greg Odion said it is hard to discern the real intent of the government with regards to the decision to unbundle the NNPC. “This could not be easily discerned from mere change in titles from GEDs to CEOs or COOs. A more detailed evaluation and “surgical operations” on the processes and re evaluation of the competencies of the manpower should be done to bring about required effectiveness and efficiencies for sustainable profit units.”

    He was, however, quick to admit that there is so much rot in the system, hence a clear anti-corruption policies must be driven home and seek to destroy all the corrupt practices and the deal with those involved.

    “A clear transparent agenda in compliance with international standard must be brought to fore in the operations of these units in order to succeed. All these and many others could be done and get improvement without necessarily sacking anyone not found guilty of other crimes and without necessarily privatising the units. Why not apply the same model of operations on them the way the private organisation will do?”

    Is the NNPC not amenable to change?

    This is not the first attempt to clean the Augean stable in the NNPC. Before now, previous administrations tinkered with the idea of unbundling the state-owned oil corporation.

    Specifically, in 2008 the late President Umaru Yar’Adua let it be known that he was about to unbundle NNPC after receiving the report of the Oil and Gas Sector Reform Implementation Committee then headed by Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman. The bill designed to give effect to this, Petroleum Industry Bill [PIB] has been languishing in the National Assembly since 2008 and no one seems to know its fate today.

  • Phase3 reiterates commitment to efficiency

    Phase3 reiterates commitment to efficiency

    Phase3 Telecom has said it will deepen investment on infrastructure to extend its reach, increase efficiency, scale up resilience and adaptability for efficient network services and offer solutions that will amplify the operations of its clients across the West African sub-region.

    The firm which is West Africa’s largest independent fibre optic infrastructure and telecommunications services provider continues to reinstate its dedication to maximising the sub-region’s growth potential within the sector.

    Being an indigenous firm, Phase 3 has been at the forefront of increasing backbone infrastructure that will boost digital market viability and minimise the challenges of accessibility and reliability across sectors and layered connectivity needs.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Stanley Jegede, said the firm will continue invest on robust network to enable the firm extend its reach as the IT world migrates to the new era of internet of things (IoT).

    He said: “As more clients that ride on Phase3 network take advantage of the Internet of Things to deliver efficiency in their areas of business; it is very important for us to continue to extend reach as well as adopt the best technology and resource to make our network more secure, resilient and adaptive. Without this, the network will be largely exposed to incessant point of failure with fatal impact on the client and huge cost in millions on downtime.”

    Jegede added that the focus of Phase3 in the coming months; is not just to drive a network infrastructure that connects people but to be the frontrunner in scaling a network that helps grow economies and effectively support technological innovations that expand the world and make it better in all sectors.

    This is essential to accelerating the social development, growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity the sub-region has been clamoring for.

    The firm which is set to mark its 12th year anniversary next month, said  because of its capacity to deliver homegrown solutions deliver significant long term value and as part of its wider West Africa roll out plan to deliver regional connectivity through a single network, it has commenced the deployment of a 228 km long aerial fiber optic infrastructure from Kano to Gazaoua in the Republic of Niger, a landlocked country that borders six other countries of Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya and Mali.

    The project is under the Niger-Nigeria fiber-optic cable project being facilitated by the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) through the extension of the Backbone Transmission Infrastructure Programme (BTRAIN) programme.

  • ‘We’re repositioning KEDC for efficiency’

    ‘We’re repositioning KEDC for efficiency’

    The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC), which was sold to private investors by the Federal Government, is yet to be handed over to its owners. In this interview with TONY AKOWE, its Managing Director, Mallam Mohammed Idris Mohammed, speaks on the firm’s prospects.

    What are the challenges you face in the course of doing business in the states covered by the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company that you think should be addressed before it is handed over to its owners?

    We are fully prepared for the take-over of the company by the new owners. However, let me announce to our customers what we intend to do for their benefit before the new owners take over.

    First, last year, the KEDC had the best financial report. By December last year, our cash collection was N1.070 billion which is the highest in the history of revenue generation of the company. Also, as cash collection recorded the highest peak, power generation also reached its peak.

    By December 2013, power generation reached 114 MWs. The effect was that there was corresponding increase in cash collection because of the availability of power. We would not have achieved that without the support of the media. We had a lot of challenges during the year and we had to prepare strategies to overcome those challenges.

    Some of the greatest challenges we had were those of public enlightenment, especially on the status of power supply, on the need to prevent vandalisation of our equipment, the need for our customers to appreciate the services that we are providing by making them pay their electricity bills as and when due, and also appealing to our customers to ensure they do not bypass our electricity meters.

    However, through the commitment of members of the press, we were able to overcome those challenges and they contributed to our attaining the highest performance in December.

    Nonetheless, for us in KEDC, there is hope that we will realise our dream. We are hoping that before the handover of the company to the new investors, we should be able to meet our settlement invoice, to pay our market requirement by the end of the month. Meeting our settlement invoice means that our bills would have been successfully collected, the running cost for the month successfully settled and be able to pay salaries without recourse to help from anywhere.

    We are hoping to collect N1.5 billion before the new owners take over its operation. That would mean that we will be able to pay for the cost of electricity, pay our salaries and post some profits.

    By the time we succeed in doing these, KEDC will be the first investors’ delight and also be like Ikeja and Eko Distribution Companies that are doing very well.

    How prepared are you for its eventual take over by the new owners?

    From the strategies we have lined up for this year, we will realise our target. One of our strategies is to bring our services closer to our customers wherever they are and to do that, we have created five additional business units. They include Zaria City, Birnin Gwari, Jaji, Zuru and Kachia business units.

    The creation of these units was borne out of necessity to improve the quality of service for our customers. While the quality of service is improving in Kaduna, drastic efforts must be made by management to ensure that the same quality of service is enjoyed in all nook and cranny of the states under our control.

    With the additional units, our services will now be closer to the people and our customers will have direct access to members of management at our response and complaint centres. It will be like responding to any form of fault within 24 hours.

    We are also going to inaugurate some products for the benefits of our customers. Just like the telecom companies where you buy recharge cards to recharge your phones, our customers can now buy recharge cards with which, from the comfort of their homes and offices, recharge their electricity meter and light becomes available. With this special card, our customers will be satisfied because sometimes when the customers come here, there are long queues. Sometimes as a result of network problem and breakdown in communication, the customers are unable to recharge their meters.

    With the introduction of the electricity cards, one can buy the cards and keep in one’s home, in one’s wallet and whenever one runs out of electricity at home, one would recharge one’s meter anywhere there is network service on one’s phone.

    The second product we have is also interesting. If one has airtime in one’s handset and one wants to recharge one’s meter with the airtime in one’s phone, one can do that. It is the most interesting product that our customers will enjoy this year. As long as there is power supply, you will not have disruption. In addition to that, we are also introducing web-based recharge system. You can go to our website and log on to the site where you want to recharge your meter and with your ATM card, you can recharge your meter.

    This you can do anywhere you have internet service.

    We are going to extend our services to ATM in all the banks so that our customers can go to any bank with their ATM cards and recharge their meters. When these products are made available to our customers, quality of service will improve, even as customer’s will derive maximum satisfaction. This, invariably, will improve the revenue base of the company which will help us to realise our targets.

    We have a world-class customer service office. It is comparable to any customer care unit anywhere in the world. We hope that before the end of the year or before the hand-over, we would have a banking service here in the office which will serve as a one-stop centre. When that is in place, the customer care unit will take care of customers’ needs till the handover.

    These are some of the activities we will embark on this year before the handover to the new owners who we know are waiting. We are ready for them and we believe that they will be happy with the company they have invested in.

    You spoke about improved revenue collection, but no mention was made about the debt being owed the company by consumers. Does that mean your customers are up-to-date in their payment?

    What we should be more concerned with is the level of improvement in our performance. By January last year when we came in, the response rate to our bills was about 35 per cent. But as at today, we have increased that to 52 per cent which shows that we are making progress.

    The debt profile as at today stands at about N40 billion, but it would have been more than this if we had not been able to put things in place to ensure that we get more response from our customers.

    Majority of the defaulters are the residential customers who, by consumption, take away about three quarters of our energy. With the new facilities being introduced to help customers pay their bills, we are optimistic that it will be much easier for them to respond to our bills.

    With the metering programme currently available, we are confident that prepaid meters are well accepted by customers. We are expecting about 40,000 meters from the World Bank which will be installed in Kaduna. The places to benefit from these meters have been earmarked and the installation of these meters will help us tackle the debt profile of the company.

    Recently, you said that the company would need about N5. 7 billion to procure prepaid meters. How far have you gone on this?

    The National Electricity Regulatory Commission has come up with a mid-solution. Since the government cannot provide that fund, NERC has said if anyone has money to procure meter on his own account without waiting for free meters from government, the person can pay to certain vendors accredited by NERC and within five weeks, the person will have a new meter.

    Currently, that scheme is in place and some customers have gotten their meters in less than four weeks.

    So, the issue of metering is left for the customer to decide. That scheme is working and the meters are available because investors have invested in it.

    The Kaduna State Water Board has blamed your company for the erratic water supply in the state. How true is this?

    Between Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company and Kaduna State Water Board, it is a matter of your word against mine. We know that they have heavy equipment that require constant and regular power supply to power them in order to provide water for customers in every part of the metropolis. Sometimes, due to system fluctuation, we are not able to give them the required energy that can power their machines to provide that service.

    We also advised them that if they want to have adequate power supply, they need to run special dedicated high voltage line that will power their equipment. When they were going to buy those equipment, we expected that we will work together so that the angle of power supply for those equipment will be addressed.

    During the visit of the Minister of Power to the company last year, you complained that one of the contractors handling the NIPP plants in the zone was not performing. What is the situation now?

    I did say that about eight of the projects are suffering from abandonment.

    Interestingly, out of those eight projects, the contractors handling three of them are back to site. One of those projects here in Kaduna will be inaugurated soon. That project was one of the eight that I mentioned and once it is inaugurated, it will take care of a large chunk of areas that experience low voltage, load shedding and all kinds of low quality service. This will improve the power supply situation.

  • FITC inaugurates products for financial efficiency

    The Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) has launched new products meant to boost learning process and professionalism in the financial sector.

    The Managing Director, FITC, Mrs Lucy Newman, named the products as FITC Virtual learning, FITC E-Recruitment Portal, and FITC Virtual Library. It also developed the Nigerian version of the International Finance Corporation corporate governance and board leadership training curriculum, as well as the FITC new publications.

    She said the products were relevant and should help the development of the financial sector and improve bankers’ knowledge of the financial sector.

    Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Dr Kingsley Moghalu, endorsed the products. He said there is need to improve bankers’ knowledge of operational risk. He said: “The management of operational risk needs to be improved and we know that one of the problems that affected the banking industry in the past was almost a complete failure of risk management. We must enhance the quality of banks in Nigeria through good risk management and corporate governance using proper regulatory frameworks.”

    The FITC said the e-recruitment portal presents saves the recruitment managers a lot of time and provides an avenue for the applicant to interact with the right employers. It said that the Virtual library was initiated to complement its other human capacity development efforts.

    The Virtual library also has FITC-books, which is a reporting of publications by the institute while virtual learning is a product derived from several years of intensive industry relevant, user friendly design and layers of testing by experts.

     

  • Minister seeks efficiency at port

    The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, has urged stakeholders in the maritime industry to collaborate with the Federal Government in its quest to ensure sanity and efficiency to the ports.

    Speaking at the launch of an Integrated Port Community Information System in Port Community Information System (IPCIS), he said, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is determined to make the ports attractive for business and urged the stakeholders to embrace the IPCI system.

    The benefits of the new system include ship reporting; on-line automated notice of arrival and departure of vessels, tracking; automatic identification system, weather current and tide information, port community system, cargo tracking, smart port technology, unattended asset sensor, and also useful in operation of inland container deport.

    The system could also provide solutions to various aspects of challenges in port operation; reduce cost, offers steady profits to stakeholders and act as trade facilitator centre.

    In his own remark, the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authirity (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi said the system was launched as part of the efforts of NPA to promote efficiency at ports.