Benin Electricity Distribution Plc. (BEDC) has again bagged two awards – African Quality Achievement Award as the Most Innovative Power Distribution Company in Africa in 2016 and the 9ja Safe Merit award, respectively.
The awards were in recognition of the company’s excellent commitment to quality improvement in electricity supply across the network and for actively promoting health, safety and environment as cornerstone of business performance.
According to a statement by the company, the African Quality Achievement Award (AQAA) is an annual event initiated at celebrating leadership innovation and creativity in quality management in Africa.
The quality award for instance, is aimed at identifying, recognizing and rewarding companies, personalities and products that apply quality culture and quality management best practices to the analysis, planning and implementation and control of policies designed to achieve corporate objectives in both profit and non-profit making organisations in Africa.
It was organised and supported by African Quality Institute (AQI), Chartered institute of Quality Management of Nigeria (CIQM) and African Quality Organization (AQO).
The award advisory Board members include Prof. Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School (LBS), and Dr John Ndanusa Akanya, former Director General, Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), among other eminent technocrats in corporate Africa.
The 9jaSafe Award is the most prestigious and respected award for safety professionals / practitioners across Nigeria. Its objective is to recognize outstanding performances and laudable initiatives of companies and individuals, to foster and promote Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) best practices in the workplace and in the nation.
According to the organisers of the African Quality award, the criteria used in selecting nominees include ; compliance, reliability, quality awareness drive, ethical standard and policies, service delivery, resilience, value and operational excellence
The two awards which were bestowed on BEDC in Lagos over the weekend respectively, reflected series of efforts put in place by BEDC to boost access to electricity and improved services to customers in its franchise, in addition to pushing safety both at the workplace and on the network including occupational health, safety and environment initiatives. The company’s initiatives in this regard include procurement of personal protective wears, distribution substations fencing, and safety jingles.
As part of the process to improve quality of power supply, the company has commenced the installation and activation of approximately 2000 transformers across its network.
In addition, some BEDC network lines which were initially mainly on Low Voltage Distribution Systems (LVDS), has been upgraded to the High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS) due to low customer satisfaction arising from the adoption of the latter, with a view to improve the quality of power and significantly reduce technical and commercial losses.
The major advantages of the new initiative include: elimination of power theft, and voltage drop/fluctuations and provision of more reliable supply.
BEDC has also earmarked the distribution of 100,000 meters for customers across the coverage states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states for the remainder of this year, to bridge metering gaps amongst its customers.
