The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has acquired a €2.4m (about N1.03bn) Integrated Commercial Management System in order to effectively tackle cases of electricity theft in its franchise area.

It also said it had trained 47 employees, who will subsequently train others in managing the InCMS, adding that the facility would enhance its database, accelerate metering and improve customer services.

The Strategic and Technical Adviser to the Managing Director, AEDC, George Nguni, said the project, which has been operating skeletally in various locations, would be officially activated to commence full operation on November 26, 2018.

“The InCMS will centralise the database of electricity customers in our franchise area for better service. It will help us address issues of electricity, as well as aggregate our data with information from metered transformers and feeders so that we can access energy loss and resolve such,” he stated.

On her part, the General Manager, Customer Service, Safiya Bello, said the properties of new customers would be integrated into the InCMS, as the assets would get a service point number and a reference code, while existing customers were being migrated unto the system.

According to her, the system is in use in 104 countries globally and 14 African countries, including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya.

“When fully activated on November 26, 2018 in this country by the AEDC, Nigeria will be the 15th African country, while our company will become the first of the 11 distribution companies to adopt this technology,” Bello said.

She explained that the incessant sale of meters by fraudsters was being addressed in the system, as meters were been registered in a virtual warehouse and programmed with Global Positioning System for only a particular property to eliminate fraud.

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