The Niger State Water and Sewage Corporation has made a passionate appeal to customers; especially the Military, Paramilitary and other agencies to pay up outstanding bills in order to enable the Utility perform better
The plea was made on Monday at Media Round-table facilitated by FOMWAN E-WASH at the Administrative Office of the Corporation in Minna, the Niger State Capital
While responding to questions raised by journalists over the non-payment of water bills, the Assistant General Manager (Commercial Services) of the Corporation, Aliyu Danladi Umar, said the aforementioned customers were owing the Utility over N700 Million – a potential revenue which would have gone a long way to help the Corporation fund it’s numerous operations toward better service-delivery
He said unlike individual private customers, these defaulting organs of Government perform essential duties in the society, hence, the adoption of a pragmatic approach to encouraging them to pay up
Mr Umar who also identified some top Government functionaries as defaulters acknowledged that the pragmatic approach had started yielding results as some debtors have started paying their outstanding bills. He however called on others to follow suit
For some perspective, the Assistant General Manager disclosed that the Chanchaga Waterworks, which is one of the six urban facilities in the State gulps over N60 million as operational cost every month while the Corporation gets only N15million.
Earlier, the Programs Manager, Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) E-WASH, Dr. Hadiza Muhammadu urged the media to partner with relevant stakeholders so as to address the issues of personal hygiene and water sanitation.
The Media Round-table is expected to reconvene twice over the next two months, for feedback and progress report on the activities of the Niger State Water and Sewage Corporation which was established by Law last month