Nairobi — The number of customers now using Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) self-service digital platforms has surged to 2.1 million, up from 1.7 million.
The power utility firm noted the number of interactions on its unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) platform and Mypower App grew to 19.89 million and 15.76 million, respectively.
"In the last year, the number of customers using the self-service platforms has surged to 2.1 million, up from 1.7 million. The increased usage of the digital platforms resulted in a 75 percent reduction in foot traffic to company banking halls," the firm stated.
Joseph Siror Kenya Power's Managing Director and CEO revealed that the firm has plans to revamp its digital self-service platforms to enable customers to proactively engage the company and access various services, including printing of bills and monitoring of power outages.
Others are online applications for electricity connections, targeted and interactive messaging, as well as access to official digitally certified payment receipts.
"One of the key drivers of our current corporate strategy is the digital transformation and, in this journey, the key focus will always be the customer. To the greatest extent possible, we want to expand the scope of our self-service platforms to offer more personalized service to our customers," said Siror.
He stated that the scale-up of the firm's self-service digital platforms will help address customers' concerns and enable them to access various services remotely.
Currently, customers can check their electricity bills and tokens, report power outages and other incidents, submit their meter reading for accurate billing, as well as check the authenticity of persons presenting themselves as company staff using the USSD code and Mypower App self-service platforms.
Leveraging on technology, the corporation announced plans to also scale up the deployment of smart meters to strengthen metering and billing operations in order to enhance customer experience.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
So far, more than 8,000 commercial and industrial customers and 100,000 small and medium enterprises (SME) customers are on smart metering.
Smart meters allow customers to monitor their energy consumption on a real-time basis, thus improving billing quality and customer satisfaction, among other benefits.
As of May 2024, Kenya Power has extended its transmission and distribution network across the country, reaching over 9.62 million accounts, enabling over 75 percent of the country's population to access the national grid.
