Ikeja Electric has advised customers living around Oshodi, Shomolu and Ikeja BU environs to preload their meters in advance to avoid power outage as they stay at home during the coronavirus crisis.
The DisCo, which made this known in a series of tweets, said that the preloading of the smart cards of up to 2 months would enable it put plans in place to ensure that its customers enjoy power supply throughout the period of the virus spread.
The statement read in part: “In the event that there is a statewide shutdown to contain the spread of the Covid-19, some of our Smart Card customers may have challenges leaving their residents to vend. We, therefore, use this medium to urge them to preload their vending cards. To complement statewide efforts, we will open some of our offices to ensure our customers can vend.
“Further information on these locations will be communicated soon. This message is for customers that vend using meters that require smart cards. Other customers can vend from the comfort of their mobile phones or computers by visiting any other their preferred payment channels. “
Recall that Ikeja Electric announced that it was partially closed, as no physical transaction of business would take place across its offices in its franchise network for the next one week.
The partial closure, it said is in line with ongoing efforts nationwide to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 and protect customers and staff of the Company.
The Company, however, assured that customers would continue to enjoy services including supply of electricity, fault clearing, online channels for purchase of energy credits and payment of bills. It made known that customers can also continue to make enquiries or complaints to its Customers Care Team via email, live chat or phone calls.
Reactions have since trailed the company’s announcement on Twitter as users wondered why Ikeja Electric would want them to preload their cards when they should be thinking of how to cut down on their costs during this period as other countries.