Africa-Press – Angola. Three billion and 17 million kwanzas is the amount that more than 14,000 customers owe the National Electricity Distribution Company in Malanje (ENDE), said Friday, the provincial director of the institution, José Borges.
The official gave this information during the premiere of the audiovisual program called “Sem Rodeios”, an initiative of the provincial government of Malanje, embodied in the interaction between public managers, citizens and journalists on topics related to the political, economic and social situation of the region, with the issues of energy and water dominated the issue.
Due to the debt value that tends to grow, the official said that there are ongoing awareness campaigns about the possibility of phased settlement, by agreement between ENDE and debtor customers.
Another strategy that has helped in the process of controlling and reducing debt, according to José Borges, is the geo-referenced registration of debtor customers, which facilitates identification and subsequent collection,
He made it known that ENDE controls 50 thousand 208 customers, of which 19 thousand 773 are installed in the prepayment system and 30 thousand 435 in the postpaid modality.
He specified that the electrification rate in the province is currently around 23 percent, taking into account that only four of the 14 municipalities in the province, namely Malanje, Calandula, Cacuso and Cangandala consume electricity.
He said that this figure is still below the 100 megawatts of available power, at a time when only 38, 38 are consumed in the province.
To raise the rate to satisfactory levels, he recalled that a project was under way to expand the medium and low voltage network, whose first phase reached 5,000 new connections, 500 in the municipality of Cangandala and 4,500 in 11 peripheral districts of Malanje.
He also added that this year the second stage will start, with twice as many connections expected, in order to cover the 28 gray areas of the municipality.
José Borges stressed that the project for the massive installation of prepaid meters is also soon to be implemented, with funds from the World Bank (BM).
Asked about the problem of vandalizing electrical cables and Transformer Stations, the director said that they have been working with the National Police to combat this practice and called for society to be involved in this task, in order to avoid heavy losses for the company.
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