Make buying power as flawless as possible – Business Daily
A prepaid electricity token machine provided by Kenya Power and Lightning Company. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Kenya Power as a utility firm with millions of customers ought to be aggressive about ring-fencing its systems so as not to lose revenues through various fissures.
That is why its decision to reduce the number of points at which it sells power is a welcome move.
However, locking out third parties like banks from this role should be backed by the reality on the market where access matters.
For a monopoly like Kenya Power, access to its services and products should be a key consideration when making steps like how it will sell power to every client thanks to increased connectivity.
While the Acting MD, Geoffrey Mulli, says customers on prepaid plans are more than 95 percent, that does not mean that the rest should be left in darkness, so to speak.
While technologies have improved access, the power firm should improve how it enrolls people for the prepaid networks. One of the ways of doing this is continually inviting those on post-paid to cross over.
Until that is achieved, it would be a misstep to lock out the third parties like kiosks that ensure the tokens are easily available like phone airtime or a bottle of soda.
