Escom staff member
Energy Minister Ibrahim Matola has challenged Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to resolve all complaints that were lodged by customers.
He said this when he stormed Escom offices in Lilongwe on Wednesday following an incident where an angry customer dropped a 5 litre bottle containing urine at Game Complex to exercise anger for not being connected to electricity.
Matola said a big backlog of customers who have not accessed electricity prompted him to visit the offices so as to address some of the challenges.
“I came here for a sudden visit because of Malawi Electricity Access Project (Meap) where people applied for electricity in 2016 and some of them have not been connected.
“And I have been looking at the figures but I was not impressed, hence I thought of making a surprise visit not only on Meap programme but also on electricity faults,” Matola said.
He further urged the utility body to embark on sensitisation campaigns to teach people how they can access and address some of their challenges pertaining to electricity.
“I have seen that there is new technology which is being applied at Escom. In those days, there were phone calls, but now, issues are being addressed by WhatsApp messages and some on email but Escom is not coming out with civic education so that people should know what it is doing.”
Escom Regional Manager George Matukuta said that they are ready to address challenges that customers are facing.
“I think there are genuine complaints and some are emanating from lack of knowledge; so, the minister has asked us to improve on communication with customers so that they should know what we are doing, and where the shortfalls are, so that, by so doing, customers complaints will die a natural death,” Matukuta said.
He further said lack of resources stifled their service provision but the ministry has assured the company that it will address the challenges.
Matukuta also said that 35,000 customers out of 180,000 targeted beneficiaries under the Meap programme which started in 2016 to benefit from the programme.
The minister stormed Lilongwe Escom Game Complex Offices and Area 3 Old Town offices on his surprise visit.
Source: The Daily Times_August 24, 2023_By Mcloyd Chilangiza