KEDCO under Dr Gwamna: A promise made, a promise kept.
By Ibrahim Sani
When purpose, integrity, diligence, trust, and altruism meet with leadership, success becomes inevitable or better yet, a norm that snowballs into a tradition of achievements for others to follow. Success in contemporary times is one concept that is highly sought but having the right leadership or followers to stamp it down in any organization has become the Achilles heels of many in positions of authority. The story of an achiever in Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna (The Sardaunan Gombe), the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) is one that calls for archiving because in the nearest of time, it will become a model for younger crop of leaders to learn and better the lots of any organization for Nigeria to be the ultimate winner especially in the power sector.
Today, KEDCO is a brand in terms of quality and heart-warming service delivery in the power sector in Nigeria. And the driving force in KEDCO leadership is one person known to many as a man of integrity having bought the trust of the ordinary man with his kind heart, benevolence and people-first style of leadership, the Sardaunan Gombe has taken KEDCO to a totally new heights in a state where even the customers have had every cause to trust the company as the distribution channel of power to Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states.
Timing as we know is very key to showcasing the strengths, challenges and the future plans to keep progress and development in one’s organization intact and steady. The achievements of KEDCO team couldn’t have come at a better time than the just concluded 3rd annual marketing conference. When the history of power sector reforms in Nigeria is mentioned in the nearest future especially as regards power distribution, the efforts of KEDCO team will resound in magnitude loud enough for accolades.
The just concluded conference by KEDCO which is the third in a series was introduced two years back to review the performance of the company for the year while planning for the incoming year. This conference has served as a very potent one in terms of boosting the capacities of the team to serve our customers in ways that befit best global standards. Since the introduction of this conference, there has been a monumental increase in revenue generation, customer relations, effective operations and improved team work. As part of the events of the conference, is an award gala night which is organized to reward diligent staff in line with the criteria that tint towards good customer-relations and efficiency in service delivery. It has been proven that award has a way of spurring workers to be committed and not just involved in the organization.
During the conference, there was a gala night, where awards were given to deserving staff based on operational efficiency, revenue generation, customer relations and administration. As part of the aim of the conference, KEDCO reeled out their target for 2019. One of the key targets was the N48billion collection in 2019. The Kano DisCo boss said that strategies had been put in place to ensure that this target gets achieved. He stated that the trial of the strategy raked in N2.7billion monthly as against the previous N1.5 as was the monthly benchmark. He was optimistic that when the strategy was in full operation, it would yield N4billion in a month to meet the N48billion mark for 2019. At the end of the conference, KEDCO team restated their commitment to maintaining a responsive and customer-centered company, improved synergy with stakeholders in the power sector, creating flat structured organization where everyone has the opportunity to influence the direction of the company as well as building an ecosystem approach in order to solve problems and open new opportunities.
During the just concluded conference, the Sardaunan Gombe reiterated that the platform provided in the conference had helped to get fresh ideas by creating a channel for the staff and customers to be giving their opinions and complaints to be addressed. Introduction of these ideas have stood Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna out in terms of his style of leadership which many refer to as rich-humility leadership. This is because he makes himself available for question and answer session with staff and even customers when the need arises. According to him, “when you make yourself available, you create an opportunity to learn from people without paying school fees and what you learn will determine what you will bring to the table of leadership to guarantee success in position of authority’’. This is the kind of idea that births modern day leadership that many a Nigerian leader should imitate to better the lots of the common man whose expectation has not been met in the course of steering the ship of governance in contemporary times.
The leadership traits of Dr Gwamna shows he is humble, simple, kind, hardworking and committed to steering the affairs of KEDCO under a well-disciplined atmosphere that abhors late coming and inefficiency at any level. With these innovations, the future of KEDCO is secured for greatness. With the improvements recorded in the power sector especially in the area of distribution, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States are set for a better service delivery in 2019.
When Gwamna took over the mantle of leadership in KEDCO, his promise of making it a foremost power distributing company in the world with customer’s satisfaction a priority that deserves the utmost attention has been his driving vision. Today, those promises have been kept through improved power distribution from 220MW to 344MW. Also, about 400, 000 prepaid meters out of 500,000 targets have so far been distributed to customers with a view to addressing difficulties in collecting electricity consumption bills. As far as a revolution in the power sector is concerned, KEDCO has proven that it’s on course to addressing the challenges in the sector in the nearest future.
On the part of the staff, a promise kept because he has been able to guarantee the well-being of the workers and prioritize their demands in terms of human investment as the way forward to sustaining the team bond which is unrivalled. Our KEDCO is not where we ought to be but there is no denying the fact that we are on the right track and with the able leadership team as it is being driven by our image of modern day reformer, in the person of Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna, the fortunes of Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States’ customers have been re-fueled for improvement as we look forward to the next conference to reel out all our targets for 2019 as achievements during the 4th marketing conference in December, 2019.
Ibrahim Sani a freelance writer can be reached via [email protected]
