Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 01:57 pm
Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has launched a new billing system that enables customers to pay their bills via online portal without physical presence as well as bills made available via sms and email.
This according to the company is geared towards meeting the expectations of its valued customers across its business unit.
This came as the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ranked the IBEDC first among all the 11 Distribution Companies, DISCOs in the country.
The company, in a statement said that the new robust and scalable billing system, tagged Electricity Management System (EMS), provides an online real time payment platform that enables customers to make payments of its electricity bills at any IBEDC designated payment center and service hub across the IBEDC franchise coverage area.
The new billing platform also features a customer relations management system that seamlessly integrates with IBEDC’s call centers for superior customer service delivery.
Also, the company stated that, “apart from offering a one-stop billing platform with robust content, the upgraded bill form comes in a new and attractive A4 paper format, containing comprehensive customer information, detailed energy bill breakdown and summary, energy consumption trend analysis, as well as NERC’s contact address and contact phone numbers. Customer bills will now be made available via sms and email, ensuring that billing information is made available in a convenient and secure manner.”
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO/MD, Mr. John Donnachie, explained that:
“IBEDC is positioning itself to provide quality service at every customer touch point beginning with a billing methodology that will put an end to the age long controversial billing that is not only largely unacceptable and unreliable, but is also one of the inherited albatrosses of the past.
We want to make our valued customers pay for the exact quantum of energy they consume. He further stated that IBEDC within a short while would launch a comprehensive online (web/telephone) based vending solution that offers qualitative services to its prepaid customers, while enabling them to vend energy from any part of Nigeria.”
In the same vein, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Deolu Ijose, posited that gradually the deluge of customer complaints will be significantly reduced as IBEDC embarks on a transformational journey to positively change the lives of its customers through the provision of customer friendly and value added services.
Meanwhile, on the company’s ranked position, the regulators stated that IBEDC emerged the top performer among its peers in the distribution value chain of the country’s power sector, after fulfilling demands expected of it.
Some of the criteria which positioned the company in first place, from the fourth place it occupied in the first quarter of 2016 were; reduction in average technical and collection (ATC&C) losses, collection efficiency, metering progress, HV faults clearance Index and reporting compliance.
Also, the company’s CEO, attributed the improved performance to the commitment and pursuance of the company’s five-pronged 2016 strategic business initiatives.
“Since inception and specifically this year we have made giant strides in upgrading our network infrastructure, revamping our billing system, investing heavily in the capital development of our human resource, massive franchise wide metering and delivery of superior customer service.”
He further assured of tireless effort by the company to ensure “undoubtedly workforce to become more committed and continuously putting in their utmost to ensure, superior and efficient service delivery to our customers in line with our vision to be the best electricity distribution company in the country.”
Corroborating the success, DMD, Engr. John Ayodele, maintained that the company is seeking new and effective ways to continually deliver on its customer satisfaction promise. Such promises according to him included: to distribute power and change the lives of its valued customers by ensuring that the allocated power supply is adequately rationed so that customers get value for paying their bills whilst we continue to pursue our metering exercise.
The company further appealed to customers to ensure that its bills are promptly paid as well as reporting illegal activities in their communities to enable us serve them better, as we remain committed to our mission statement ‘distributing power, changing lives’.
