Kenya Power mulls outsourcing meter reading to increase revenue

Posted on : Wednesday , 28th January 2015

Kenya Power plans to outsource the entire metering process as part of its strategy to enhance service delivery to customers and increase revenue. The national electricity distributor opines that by sub-contracting the exercise, it will be easier to get accurate power usage by customers and increase revenue. Managing Director Ben Chumo confirmed that the initiative is also aimed at eliminating corruption which for a long time has denied the company huge sums in revenue.

Our focus as a company is to ensure meter reading and billing is professionally done,” he said in an interview in his Stima Plaza office. For a long time, Mr Chumo added, the company has been faced with graft where some personnel conspire with customers to siphon money from the company. The activity, he said, would be sub-contracted to a reputable global manufacturing company, adding that the tendering process would start soon. “Once the process is outsourced, the more than 600 meter readers will be deployed to other activities within the company to enhance production. The sub-contracting, he added, is part of a new approach to modernise installation of power meters at customers’ premises to prevent electricity theft and to introduce e-payment to ease long queues of customers in banking halls.