The Nation Newspaper

Tag: pre-paid

  • Konga.com becomes pre-paid only platform

    Konga.com becomes pre-paid only platform

    Konga.com has announced its decision to become an exclusive pre-paid platform. This decision was taken as part of its measures to become more efficient and to focus on the orders that consumers really want.

    Chief Executive Officer, Konga.com, Mr. Shola Adekoya said the company had in recent years explored several solutions for payment and ecommerce in Nigeria and concluded that pre-payment is the necessary approach for its business and the market.

    According to him, given the cost of inflation and increasing challenges managing payment-on-delivery, as well as the resulting level of order cancellations on the platform, the company had to take the decision on pre-payment.

    “We will continue to review other ways to provide payment-on-delivery to customers, but for the time being, we will remain a pre-paid only platform.”

  • Community insists on pre-paid meters or no payment

    Residents of Okunola community in Mosan/Okunola Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have vowed to resist outrageous electricity bills and called on the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, (IKEDC), to provide them pre-paid meters without delay.

    Speaking through the Duro-Olaleru Crescent Community Youth Development Association, the residents said outrageous bills were slammed on them without regular power supply.

    A community leader, Mr. Joshua Faboye said the community needs pre-paid meters and constant electricity supply, adding that some tenants had packed out of his house because of power failure and crazy bills leaving him with no choice other than to use rent collected from new tenants to pay outstanding bill.

    He said: ” When they were charging us about N750 for electricity consumed the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, warned the electricity distribution companies not to issue bills to consumers if pre-paid meters were not installed, but IKEDC did not obey the instruction.’’

    Faboye lamented that the exorbitant bill has negatively affected businesses and social lives of the people living in the area.

    “I am a retiree, all the money I generated from my house I give it to IKEDC because tenants will pack out. Immediately they pack out the new tenant rents will be used to pay IEC bill. If they don’t give us pre-paid meters, they should not to give us bill.

    Another member of the community, Mr Olu Toyin complained that the IKEDC gave preferences to a nearby community.

    “Ever since the company was privatized we have not been seeing the best of them. Where I live, IKEDC distributed pre-paid meters from Iyana Ipaja, Egbeda and Alabata Streets. They stopped there to jump to Okunola and moved to Abule Odu to distribute the meters. We have gone to their office to complain all to no avail.

    “They bring crazy bills like N20,000 and N50,000. There is even a  house that is owing up to N1,000,000 which I think is impossible and because they are not running any factory there. In my house, I paid a sum of N10,000 every month, we are pleading to them to bring the pre-paid meter so we can pay for what we are consuming.

    The spokesman of IKEDC, Felix Ofolue however said the affected consumers have not been abandoned saying: “We have not abandoned them. Everyone knows the current economic situation of the country and harsh business environment which has also affected not just IKEDC but other electricity distribution companies across the country. Even if we have the resources to procure pre-paid meters, we still have to factor in the cost of engaging technical personnel to install them. In spite of the challenges, we have been installing the meters in phases and as we speak, we have installed the meters in places like Idimu and Government Reservation Area (G.R.A) in Ikeja. The residents of the affected community should exercise patience and we shall get to their area soon.

    ‘Concerning the issue of crazy bills, we have a way of monitoring power supply and consumption and this we do by installing a metering device inside transformers in several communities. Through this, we are able to monitor the consumption of power supplied and bill consumers.The only challenge we are having is that of electricity thieves which has rubbed off on genuine consumers. To this end, I want to urge residents to be vigilant and expose those who are stealing electricity, not for prosecution but to ensure that they are properly billed.’’

  • Eko Disco to install 200,000 pre-paid metres

    Management of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) yesterday said the company planned to install 200,000 pre-paid metres this year to end estimated billing.

    Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Oladele Amoda spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    Amoda said the company had signed an agreement with Mojek International, an indigenous smart meter manufacturing company, for the supply of over 100,000 meters in December.

    “We also signed another agreement with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, an international company based in this country, to supply the remaining 100,000 pre-paid meters.

    “We have started metering consumers under our network with these metres.

    “It is our responsibility to meter all consumers and we are looking at being able to deploy the 200,000 meters before the year runs out.

    “The motive is to eliminate estimation of consumers billing by 2017,” he said.

    Amoda said the company had been on a metering programme since 2015 and would have metered all its consumers, but for some challenges confronting successful implementation of the scheme.

    He listed inflation and increase in foreign exchange rate as challenges the company had to contend with.

    Amoda, said that the company installed over 100,000 pre-paid meters for its consumers in 2016.

  • Electricity consumers bemoan scarcity of pre-paid meters

    Electricity consumers have expressed disappointment over the inability of the distribution companies (DISCOs) to provide them with pre-paid meters.

    They lamented that they have been forced to live with pains associated with the arbitrariness that goes with ‘estimated billing’ system of the DISCOs.

    Some of the consumers complained that they have even paid for the metres but have not been given, wondering why it should be so, especially now that the sector is in the hands of entrepreneurs who, government said, are better managers of business.

    A man who identified himself simply as Samuel said he  cannot understand why the investors cannot supply metres to their customers.

    “These so-called investors seem not to know what to do. In my view, the first step to   profitabilit would have been to provide customers the pre-paid metres free of charge. “Then they should monitor how often they vend because people may want to sabotage the system. It is when people pay for energy consumed that they will make money.“

    Another customer in Egbeda, a Lagos suburb expressed frustration. “I am on estimated billing. I am forced to pay between N7,000 and N10,000 monthly. I do not run a manufacturing outfit,” he said.

    This is coming even after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), had in October 22 last year, ordered DISCOs to provide metres to their customers within 45 days to reduce the problems of consumers.

    The Nation check revealed that customers daily besiege offices of the DISCOs for pre-paid metres.

    But a staff of IKEDC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the firm might roll out metres before April, adding that efforts are on-going to give metres to customers soon.

    ‘’The metres may be free. Nobody knows. But what it is certain is that the company would roll out metres soon.

    The General Manager, Consumer Services, IKEDC, Ms Olubukola Ojurongbe, had in an earlier interview with The Nation, said the company was making efforts to solve all the metering problems facing it. Ojurongbe said the DISCOs were not responsible for the scarcity of pre-paid metres in the country, promising that IKEDC was not folding its arms on the issue.

  • 500,000 pre-paid meters coming

    The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) is to instal 500,000 electricity pre-paid meters in the next three years.

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abiodun Ajifowobaje, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    He said the installation would begin in December.

    The CEO said IKEDC would ensure effective metering for customers without meters to stop estimated billing.

    He told NAN that the company was faced with challenges of adequate meters and insufficiency of energy from the National Grid.

    Ajifowobaje, however, said IKEDC was working out modalities for a lasting solution to the problems.

    The CEO said the company had established a customers’ forum’’ in all its business units.

    “Our first phase plan is to ensure that about 300,000 pre-paid meters are rolled out by December while the others will be installed to replace faulty ones in the next three years.

    “The IKEDC receives 350 mega watts to 450 mega watts instead of a daily energy supply of 1,250 mega watts from the National Grid.

    “I am, however, happy to report that IKEDC is involved in talks with several partners to explore supply from embedded power generation, independent power projects and other sources, to improve supply.”