Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) says it is suspending disconnection of its loyal and paying customers, who may not be able to meet electricity payment obligations due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Head of Corporate Communications in EEDC, Mr Emeka Ezeh, said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Sunday.

Ezeh assured of EEDC’s commitment to availability of power supply for residential customers within this period of the COVID-19 in view of the stay-at-home order.

“To sustain our operations, our procurement and technical teams have been working closely to ensure that our supply chain is not disrupted during this period, so we can attend to maintenance issues and clear faults without delay.

“As our own way of supporting the effort of the various state governments in the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic, EEDC will provide more regular power supply to isolation and testing centres.

“Same regular power supply will be extended to other areas such hospital facilities set up by the Federal and State governments within our franchise area,’’ he said.

He said that in line with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) directive, the company had set-up hand washing facilities at entry point of all its offices, where staff and visitors wash their hands with soap, under running water before gaining access into the premises.

He said that alcohol-based hand sanitisers had been provided for this purpose in all offices, while non-contact thermometers were used in some offices to further screen all staff and customers before granting access to them.

Ezeh said: “We encourage social distancing in our engagement with customers and have provided protective materials such as hand gloves, face masks and hand sanitisers for some category of staff that regularly interfaced with customers.

“As a further measure toward observing social distancing, we reduced the population of staff that report to work at our various offices and implemented arrangements where some staff work from home alternating on a weekly basis,” he said

He urged customers who had need to report faults, lodge complaints or make enquiries, to use EEDC 24/7 Call Centre, email and social media platforms.

He said the platforms “include: 24/7 Call Centre: 084 700 100; Email: customerservice@enugudisco.com; Social media platforms (Twitter and Facebook: @enugudisco; Instagram: @enugu_disco) and accident/emergency call number: 0815 082 4301.

“New online bill distribution and bill payment solutions have been introduced to reduce physical contacts and ease payments for services.

“Our customers now have the option of receiving their bills through: Telegram, SMS or through our website; while payment for energy bills can be conveniently made through: Energy Pay on our website; Third party collection agents; Commercial banks and Quickteller.”

He said that EEDC would continue to maintain regular communication among its employees, customers and promptly intimate them on developments as they occurred in order to serve them better during the period of the pandemic.

The EEDC spokesman expressed hope that with collective effort, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic will soon be curtailed. (NAN)

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