Gov. Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State has urged the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO) to improve on its services for more payments from customers.
Aliyu made the call at Customers Complaints Resolution Meeting organized by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Thursday in Sokoto.
The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Energy and Petroleum Resources, Alhaji Sanusi Ibrahim, lamented that residents could not continue to pay for darkness instead of steady electricity supply.
“I urged you to improve on electricity supply to consumers before any hike in tariff.
“I really commended you for organizing this kind of meeting, however, I need to remind you that you can only get more money from the people once your services improve.
“Both NERC and KAEDCO, should concentrate on how best to improve services in order to get more money. When you improve on the service, patronage is sure,” Aliyu said.
The governor told the meeting that some areas of the state had no electricity in the last nine years and KAEDCO had done nothing to correct.
“The current administration has spent about N1.5 billion to replace some of the vandalized items in the state which includes transformers, poles, wires, among others.
“Only for KAEDCO to start collecting money from such customers when the process was completed.
“The company focus more attention on how to obtain money, how to distribute more meters but not on how to improve on the services being rendered to the people,” he lamented.
Aliyu called on the management of KAEDCO to organize more of such engagement to enable more consumers to be enlightened and know about their rights and why they should pay.
In his address, KAEDCO’s Chief Commercial Officer, Alhaji Ahmed Sanusi, said the company was workingto improve electricity supply in the state.
Sanusi said the recent dip in the supply of electricity supply was as a result of fire incident and vandalism in Kebbi state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured questions and answers from participants on billing system, collection of money from customers for repairs, among others.
