Some Nansana residents are excited about Umemes installation of prepaid electricity meters commonly known as Yaka in homes and businesses throughout the community. There is no more load shedding in the area according to residents. Yaka is a new billing system from Umeme that allows you to manage your electricity consumption. With this system, you buy electricity credit in advance and it’s recorded on a smart card. After recharging, the card is inserted in the meter box, the meter reads it, connects the supply to the consumer loads, and debits the value. There are banks where you can buy units from like Centenary, Post Bank and Standard Chartered as well as many supermarkets and pay way kiosks. You can even use mobile money to pay for your electricity. After paying, they give you a 20-digit Yaka token number which you enter into the Customer Interface Unit (CIU). Once entered, the tick icon will confirm the token is correct. And in few seconds, the total remaining credit will be displayed. The lighted icon confirms the electricity is connected. And whenever the credit is low, Yaka CIU signal makes a warning beep. This helps you to top-up before power shutdown. Prossy Namakula a resident of Nansana is happy about the new system because she is now able to control her money since she knows how much she can to use. “There is much relief these days because no more electricity bill papers on my door by Umeme staff”. She said. Iren Nabukalu another resident of the area no longer gets complaints from her customers on drinks that are not cold enough because her refrigerators are on 24hours. She said that load shedding was a big problem in the past, but it now happens only rarely. “Even if it rains power remains on, this was not common before. My business is going on smoothly”. Iren said. Rose Nankunda another Nansana resident also has a Yaka meter in her house . The new system is not tiresome. I can pay using my mobile phone when I am just sited at home at any time through mobile money service.” She said But while this system has left residents like Namakula rejoicing, other people in Nansana are also complaining that Yaka meter system is more inconvenient than convenient. A housewife and a resident of Nansana who only identified herself as Mary said that there a lot of inconsistence when buying electricity. “Recently I went to one of the outlets and paid Shs20, 000 but I was given only 0.6units. And my neighbor who paid the same amount was given 58units” She added that ever since switching to the prepaid system, she is paying more than before yet Umeme had assured them that the cost of a unit would remain the same as before. “Umeme is cheating us and we are not benefiting at all”. She said. However, Joseph Atuhuura, the Prepayment Project Manager of Umeme had earlier explained that the majority of the users were also connected irrespective of their previous electricity debt. So the inconsistencies could be due to the arrears that the company is deducting from people’s accounts. By Emily Kembabazi – Nansana. kembabaziemily@yahoo
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:09:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015