The CRDB Bank Limited on Thursday sealed deal with the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) which will enable Dar es Salaam based customers of the power utility company to pay their bills through that bank.
Following the agreement, Tanesco`s customers would no longer be required to queue for paying their bills at Tanesco`s cash counters, often closed over the weekends, and instead would now conveniently make use of CRDB Bank`s Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and visa-cards to settle their monthly electricity bills.
Speaking during the signing ceremony held at the CRDB Bank headquarters in the City, the Tanesco Managing Director Dr. Idris Rashidi said that the move would give his company the much needed opportunity to concentrate on the company`s core business.
``It has so far not been quite fitting for our workers to collect cash from our customers and at the end of the day remit the same to the banks`` he said.
Dr. Rashidi said that from now onwards, Tanesco would concentrate on ensuring meters and cables were available and leave the money end of business to the experts, that is, CRDB Bank.
He believes the move would, apart from reducing congestion of customers queuing to pay their electricity bills, the `bill payment via CRDB Bank` would allow customers to access Tanesco services round the clock through the bank�s ATMs now available at all bank`s branches.
Tanesco says has conducted a survey that shows customers prefer to pay their bills at their leisure time, hence the convenience for launching the service in the City.
Dr. Rashidi also unveiled that Tanesco was preparing new and modern system of processing and delivering bills to customers to be known as `HiAffinity`.
The envisaged system would speed up billing efficiency and revenue collections on a monthly basis.
``The other strategy is that which we expect to launch before the end of the year�customer service charter, in which the company will enter into agreement with customers enabling them to hold Tanesco to accountability as long they feel not satisfied with services rendered`` he added.
Tanesco also plans to introduce call centers which will quickly facilitate communication between customers and company, especially in attending to matter related to emergences as well as power blackouts.
In Dar es Salaam region, Tanesco would open regional offices in Tegeta, Mbezi, Kimara, Gombo la Mboto, Mbagala and Yombo sub-locations, another one to cater for Nyerere Road industrial areas and Kigamboni with view to bring services closer to customers.
On his part, the CRDB Bank Limited Dr. Charles Kimei said that following the agreement, Tanesco customers with ATM cards and Visa Cards will have to approach CRDB Bank`s offices for their cards to be activated to get access to this particular service.
``Once their cards are activated and get connected electronically, they will have opportunity to pay their electricity bills using the CRDB Bank accounts`` Kimei said.
The service would later be rolled over countrywide.
In Dar es Salaam, the service becomes available through more than 50 CRDB branches and 75 ATMs, and additional 20 ATMs would be fitted before July this year.
* SOURCE: Guardian
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