BEDC woos customers with discounts, longer repayment period

The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has disclosed that it has developed a debt restructuring scheme for customers to enjoy discounts and address their outstanding indebtedness of electricity bills.

The company also announced an extension of debt contract period up to a maximum of 60 months, depending on customers’ debt profile and their down payments.

In a statement issued at the weekend, BEDC said: “The Debt Rescheduling Scheme is in line with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) Act, which mandates that electricity operators recover costs on prudent investment to be able to provide quality services to customers.”

The statement revealed that the scheme had commenced across BEDC’s franchise states of Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo. The scheme is designed in a customer-centric manner to encourage esteemed customers to minimise their debt repayment burden and help them to gradually reduce accumulated debts, while providing improved electricity supply in line with Service Reflective Tariff (SRT) Regulation.

BEDC explained that the scheme was introduced in order to help customers who were unable to settle electricity bills as and when due, due to the prevailing economic and financial difficulties. The scheme provides the opportunity to restructure the terms and conditions for them to be able to settle their outstanding bills over a period.
 
The key features of the scheme include debt rescheduling scheme applicable to debts of over N10,000, combined discount ranging from five per cent to 25 per cent, down payment of 25 per cent  and debt repayment periods from between six months  to 60 months depending on customers’ profile (whether metered or estimated) as well as debt range and type of tariff band.
 
Other features are that customers could be offered additional rebate of five per cent in addition to the applicable discount, if the remaining outstanding amount was paid instantly and discounts are cancelled if customers failed to meet agreement at any time.
 
“For customers, who have outstanding debts and do not pay as and when due, disconnection of the parties will continue, unless they are part of the rescheduled agreement and are paying their debts on the due dates,” the statement added.