The Managing Director of Kano Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO, Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna has expressed disgust over the high rate of vandalism, energy theft, illegal connection and others are the obstacles hindering constant power supply.
He expressed optimism that the company can generate 24-hour power supply with cooperation of its customers by meeting its objections through prompt payment of their bills.
Mr Gwamna who revealed this on Monday Kano, while speaking to reporters, said that for distribution to be a success within the states under KEDCO, all bottlenecks must be removed.
The DisCo boss listed some of the bottlenecks as energy theft, vandalism, illegal connections amongst other things, added that some customer’s refusal to pay their bills was also a threat to the operational target of the company.
According to him, it is possible to have 24-hour power supply if these bottlenecks are removed in partnership with customers and the host communities.
Mr Gwamna noted that customers and host communities were always seen as major stakeholders especially on issues that bother on security of installations, adding that vandalism could be better detected by members of the host communities and customers everywhere.
“Vandalism, energy theft and unapproved connections have both operational and financial consequences on the company and our ability to provide 24-hour power supply.
“As a team and a customer-friendly company, our plan and visions is for our numerous customers to have constant delivery of power even now that the efforts of the federal government were yielding improvement in generation.
“But for the bottlenecks, we are better organized to meet that target. If our customers and host communities cooperate with us, we can fight out the bottlenecks and improve power delivery to the 24-hour supply wish of our numerous customers.
“Few months ago, KEDCO lost over N80 million to vandalism in a month and we still have such cases on our records today as a recurring issue. Due to energy theft and refusal to pay bills, the company does not generate enough revenue to cover the worth of energy being transmitted to it on monthly basis.
“If these are eliminated, I tell you KEDCO will meet the 24-hour power supply even if it takes us making more demands for transmission so as to have more to supply since power generation has improved. So, it’s a matter for our customers and host communities to help out.’’
He noted that the major help the customers and host communities could render was to report cases of attempted vandalism and energy lose to the authorities, adding that with that the company would be better placed to provide 24-hour power to meet the energy consumption of customers in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States.
