Stories by Musa Adamu
Abuja
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed separate partnership agreements with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Eko Distribution Company (KEDC) and Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) with the aim of boosting their capacity to deliver services.
According to the spokesperson of the AEDC, Ahmed Shekarau, the agreement is expected to see the companies leveraging on the help of USAID on transformational project that will help them to remove some of the impediments to their business processes by building the capacity of their employees.
The Chairman of the AEDC, Amb. Shehu Malami, said the new initiative took cognizance of the importance of a partnership approach towards addressing challenges facing the electricity sector and distribution in particular.
He said: “We know the difficulties that confronts this sector and that for the power sector to development and be able to support fully the economic and social growth of this nation, we must do better. We must boost power supply; we must improve customer service levels; we must reduce losses to ensure that every kilowatt hour is used and paid for wisely.”
He said with the new initiative, the companies would receive support form experienced professionals who would live work with them.
He described the professionals as people who have had hands-on-experience of helping to improve performance and customer care services for struggling DISCOs of other countries.
“AT the AEDC, we are committed to working in close cooperation with our new team members, with the ministry and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and other Nigerian institutions and electricity companies in the spirit of partnership to address these challenges.”
