Azare Business unit residents praises JED for improved services, steady power supply
Mohammed Kaka
The Jos Electricity Distribution (JED) company has attracted praises and commendations from residents and customers in Azare town of Katagum local government area of Bauchi.
Speaking to Katagum Online TV, a client of the Jos Electricity Distribution (JED) company, Kabiru Bappah, noted that they have witnessed a lot of improvement in power supply.
Popularly known as Kabiru soccer, Bappah rated the performance of JED in Azare metropolitan in terms of electricity supply at 85 percent.
According to soccer, as JED customers they really appreciative of the way the company is allocating power to Azare as second largest town in Bauchi state.
“We appreciate and we’ll try and make prompt payment of our charges”, Kabiru Soccer pledged.
Katagum online TV investigation revealed that residents of Azare, Misau, Jama’are, Gamawa, Zaki and Itas-Gadau rated the performance and supply of power by JED to thier community at 80 percent.
Speaking to our Corresspondent, Murtala Raji, the Regional Manager of JED Azare business unit, said they have ensured customers are well served.
“Yes we are serving our customers very well and we are working in line with the federal government agenda of providing sufficient electricity to our customers and businesses. We have an average of 15 to 23 hours across the feeders in our franchise area”, he said.
According to Murtala Raji, who appreciated the ratings of JED performance by the consumers in Azare, acknowledged that without them, the company would not be generating revenue.
Raji who said there is much to improve on in the area of payment of bills, noted that around 60 percent of the Customers respond to payment, but only settle less than 30% of their amount bill.
He further explained that the company is getting partial compliance to settlement of bills out of about 80 to 85 percent electricity supply.
The Regional Manager who said it was obvious that every business, household and customer require electricity to carry out businesses, regretted many people regards electricity as a commodity they can consume and pay whatever amount they want.
“It is unfortunate that electricity is the only commodity in Nigeria that it is the customer that set the price he would want to pay for what has been consumed instead of the seller fixing the price”, he lamented.
“Unfortunately it is the other way round. You give someone a bill of N20,000 and he will tell you that he will pay N3000, so I think this need to change for us to ensure that we continue to serve the customers better”, Raji appealed.
The Regional Manager who informed the general public that the Energy is purchased from the market and distribute to our customers with the expectation of recovering cost and make a marginal profit.
Raji who explained that JED is far away from recovery of the cost of electricity purchased, added that the company is expected to get some form of profitability.
“As it is today, we don’t even recover the cost of the electricity, so that is why it’s important for our customers to ensure full payment of their bills”, he said.