NERC approves expansion of AEDC’s vending centres to 500

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved Abuja Electricity Distribution Company’s (AEDC) plan to expand the centres for vending of its electricity tokens to 500, a statement said.

According to the statement signed by Ahmed Shekarau, head, public relations and media of AEDC, the company that was legally licensed to market and distribute electricity, vends power through 50 different selling points.

The statement, which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, said the selling points were in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.

“However, with the approval it just got from the regulatory commission, the company can now take the electricity tokens closer to the doorsteps of its customers.

“A letter from NERC ratified AEDC’s proposed alliance with Kallak Power Limited and Pagatech Limited to facilitate electricity sales and purchase at 450 additional vending points, besides the current 50,’’ it said.

The statement said Ernest Mupwaya, executive director, commercial services, AEDC, confirmed the regulatory commission’s approval of the expansion project while fielding questions from newsmen.

It also quoted Mupwaya as saying that the expansion would enable AEDC customers to have variety of options to choose from for the purchase of electricity credit units.

It said some additional options would also be made available to the company’s customers.

The options include; electronic payment channels such as inter-switch, credit cards, ATMs, PoS at supermarkets and filling stations, and mobile money (electronic wallets on phones).

The statement quoted the executive director as saying that, “We are introducing these new payment options to allow our customers to buy electricity units at the periods and points that are convenient for them.

“This has been necessitated by the need to guarantee speedy service delivery to the company’s customers. Since the new payment options will lift the burden off their shoulders in terms of waiting in long queues among other inconveniences they were hitherto subjected to.”

It said the AEDC had recently consolidated its five fragmented vending platforms into a single modern one.

According to the statement, the consolidation allows for improvement in commercial efficiency by way of processing payments and providing a more secure way of sales and revenue collection.

“Prior to the takeover of the AEDC by the current management, the company was operating five independent vending platforms. The platforms compelled customers to buy their electricity tokens only at vending points designated for their areas of coverage.

“Thereby forcing many customers to travel long distances and wait in long queues trying to buy credit units,” the statement added.