By Adedapo Adesanya
Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has banned its staffers from collecting cash from customers for payment of electricity bills in its franchise states of Edo, Delta Ondo, and Ekiti.
This was announced by the Managing Director of BEDC, Mr Henry Ajagbawa, during a meeting with billing and payment agents in Benin.
Mr Ajagbawa said that the company had broken the monopoly of having one aggregator with 1,650 agents by engaging additional 11 aggregators and 10,000 agents across the four franchise states.
“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 them.
“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 and you do not have evidence of payment, it will not appear in your bill when we come for enumeration.
“And 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 without collecting receipts.
“BEDC staff members have been banned from collecting cash from any customer. Anybody who pays cash to them is simply dashing them the money,” he said.
According to him, staff members are only permitted to carry POS machines to do such transactions electronically anytime the company goes out on cash drive.
The managing director, however, called on the aggregators to be committed to the agreement by ensuring that agents were closer to customers in all BEDC operation areas for convenience.
He also said that the enumeration of customers had begun in government-reserved areas (GRA) in Benin, after which about 8,000 meters would be installed in those areas.
“We have the meters ready in our stores, while a similar event is also ongoing in Asaba, Delta. We are taking it step by step.
“We understand that we probably need about N100 billion to meter all our customers, but we don’t have that kind of money,” he added.
Mr Ajagbawa noted that the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) had a significant number of meters from which customers could buy, while the money would be refunded to them through vending.
