The Federal Government has issued a directive to power distribution companies (Discos) ordering them to implement customer engagement platforms within the next three months, starting from September 1, 2023. This means that the Discos are required to have these facilities installed by January 2024.
The directive was conveyed through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and was prompted by the failure of Discos to effectively address the complaints and concerns of power consumers. The directive is detailed in a document from NERC with order number: NERC/2023/006, titled ‘Order on deployment of customer engagement platforms.’
This move aims to improve the communication and interaction between power distribution companies and their customers, ensuring a more efficient resolution of issues and concerns related to electricity services.
In the document, the government said, “This order shall take effect from September 1, 2023 and shall remain in force until amended or revoked by subsequent orders issued by the NERC.”
Providing a background on the order, the commission stated that it had conducted town hall meetings, and public consultations and reviewed reports of complaints from electricity distribution licensees or Discos.
It said the meetings and consultations “reveal that customers are dissatisfied with the rate of resolution of complaints filed with Discos.”
To address this, the NERC said it “resolved to deploy a call center to improve the rate of resolution of complaints filed with Discos by providing near real-time visibility of customer complaints filed with Discos.
“The call centre will also provide an additional avenue for monitoring Discos’ service quality and delivery to their customers.”The power sector regulator noted that a consultant was engaged by the commission for the deployment of the call centre.
NERC stated: “The findings of preliminary investigations conducted revealed that some Discos were yet to deploy call centres and those that had deployed call centres had done so with infrastructure/specifications that failed to meet the requirements of the commission.
“All Discos are expected to have full-featured customer engagement platforms that integrate seamlessly with the system deployed by the commission.”
