In order to meter all of its customers in the four franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo, and Ekiti, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), led by Dr. Henry Ajagbawa, revealed Wednesday that the company requires roughly N100 billion.
Ajagbawa revealed the information during a gathering with billing and payment representatives in Benin City, the capital of the Edo state.
The corporation does not, however, have such substantial funding for the initiative, he revealed.
He also mentioned that the Government Reservation Areas (GRA) in Benin have started to count their clients, and that following that, roughly 8,000 meters will be put.
The BEDC CEO further stated that the company’s store has the meters ready and that a comparable event is also going on in Asaba, Delta.
Ajagbawa further declared that employees of the distribution organization were not permitted to collect cash from clients in the various franchise states.
Agents, not employees, have been hired by the corporation to collect client debts, according to Ajagbawa.
He said the company had hired an extra 11 aggregators and 10,000 agents across the four states, breaking the monopoly of having just one aggregator with 1,650 agents.
“BEDC staff are banned from collecting cash from any customer. Anybody who pays cash to them is simply dashing them the money. We cannot rule out the fact that some of our staff are also fraudulent, but if we catch such persons, we will prosecute them.
“We have engaged additional 11 aggregators who will come with about 10,000 billing and payment agents across the BEDC franchise states.
“I do not understand why any customer will pay cash to any staff when we have advertised over and over again that people should not pay cash to any staff.
“BEDC does not collect cash, if you have to vend or pay bills, there are agents for that purpose. If you pay cash to any staff member and you do not have evidence of payment, it will not appear in your bill when we come for enumeration.
“If it does not appear, it means you have not paid and you will pay that money again. So it does not make sense to pay money to anybody and not collect receipts,” he said.
The managing director emphasized that when the corporation goes on a cash drive, employees are only allowed to carry Point-of-Sale (POS) machines to conduct such transactions electronically.
Ajagbawa urged the aggregators to uphold the contract by putting agents in convenient proximity to clients in all BEDC business regions.
