PHCN To Publish Debtors Names Who Owe N16 Billion and Above

The Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, will soon publish names of its debtors in national dailies if they fail to pay their debts amounting to N16 billion.

The Managing Director of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Idris Mohammed, said this during the First Customers Consultative Council meeting on Wednesday in Kaduna.

Mr. Mohammed said electricity consumers owe the company huge debts despite all efforts to ensure regular and effective debt collection.

He said the present debt profile was inimical to the company’s corporate survival. He urged consumers to settle their electricity bills to ensure good service delivery at all times.

The Kaduna electricity boss said more than 50,000 pre-paid meters had been distributed to customers in Kaduna metropolis, Samaru, and Zaria Business Units. He said more than 3,500 special pre-paid meters had been deployed to Sokoto State to cater for both Gwiwa and Marina

Business Units under the Federal Government’s Pilot Programme.

“This special Federal Government project will promote customer satisfaction and revenue improvement,” the managing director said.

He said that the company would soon send prepaid meters to Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi and other states to guarantee accurate billing of customers.

The initiative is expected to help reduce friction between customers and marketers, which often resulted to disconnection.

According to him, the company has purchased more than 50 transformers to replace ageing ones, while some injection sub-stations have been

completed.

The Zonal Chairman of the Customers Consultative Council, Linus Alhassan, urged various communities to set up monitoring teams to guard PHCN installations. He said the activities of vandals had continued to increase daily.

Mr. Alhassan noted that there was a dearth of PHCN equipment in the store, which had made replacement of stolen ones difficult, saying adequate security of PHCN cables and other materials would enable customers enjoy adequate power supply.

A customer from Kano Business Unit, Umar Muhammed, commended the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company for engaging electricity consumers through the Customers Consultative Council meeting. He expressed the hope that the steps taken by the company would improve power generation across the zone.