By Nyima Sillah
The Gambia Bureau of Statistic (GBoS) in collaboration with the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) have begun a nationwide data collection exercise which aimed to help Identification of obsolete and damaged equipment such as meters, transformers, poles and also to upgrade and replace.
Speaking at an organised press conference, Nani Juwara, Managing Director of NAWEC, said: “the entire project is funded by the World Bank Group and the project will add significant value to provide effective service delivery, as the project will ensure dependable data is collected not only for the internet operators but also to serve the customers.”
According to him, the project is meant to improve accuracy of billing, quality of supply and quicker fault response time to ensure better resources distribution, and effective customer service. This he disclosed that they can only achieve the benefit highlighted if they rely on the data they to be collected from the exercise.
Alassan Jagne Change Manager of IMS also disclosed that the six (6) months data collection service by Gambia Bureau of Statistic (GBoS) through NAWEC is supported by the World Bank and will last for six months.
“The data collection is to provide effective service delivery for NAWEC and the collators will go door to door collecting information from customers to ensure effective service delivery for NAWEC. Sometimes electric poles will be damaged but customers find it difficult to give NAWEC proper information to get access to that pole but with the new system NAWEC can easily locate the place.”
He therefore urged the public to collaborate with the field staff and give them access to the information they need during the process such as access to electric meters, water meters, and also to ask questions they need to know during the process. Adding that the new technology will help to address challenges face by NAWEC in the previous years.