Dealing with prepaid power

That again is an issue because most service providers do not have that facility, not to talk about the service fee incurred there from which might appear small but is cumulatively significant. What then is the effect of the afore-said – either late payment or not honouring the payment. This negatively impacts on both the payer having to incur penalties and service provider losing revenue. The best solution which is a win-win is therefore prepayment i.e. pay before you consume.
Prior to 2001 the only prepaid system I was familiar with was the Econet’s pay as you go, buddie system and Telecel with their mango juice cards.

I always heard Zesa was having prepaid meters for selected customers but I never thought or assumed it to be a workable solution. I was just used to receiving my Zesa bill and honour it without question.
There was this and is this naivety in Zimbabwe and everywhere else for that matter that computers don’t lie so we had total faith in any computer printed account whether it correctly reflected what you actually consumed or it was an estimate was of little concern to many people. Whether you last saw the meter reader by your house eons ago was of no consequence.
The computer is always right was the universally accepted mantra. It was sung with the zeal that even surpassed the Orwellian Boxer’s “Napoleon is always right”. Maybe people never really cared because there was always light when needed. Zesa was doing its part and people had to do their part i.e. paying according to the bill the computer churned out.

In mid 2001 I immigrated to a country in the Sadc region and I still remember the day I moved into my rented flat and had my first experience with a prepaid meter. Honestly speaking, I had never seen one not to mention understand its operation. I remember having to embarrass myself by asking my neighbour where to buy electricity credit and how to “juice” the meter?
Luckily the people are a friendly lot and are always willing to help. The point I am trying to drive home is that most countries in the world including Africa have moved to electricity prepayment as opposed to post payment. Prepayment in this country (where I live) has become so ubiquitous to the point that it is mandatory for all new houses to have prepaid meters installed.

There are great advantages associated with electricity prepayment both to the consumer and the utility and more so for a country like Zimbabwe where there are extended load shedding periods. The most conspicuous merits are:

The consumer has full control over electricity expenditure and usage. Consumers always feel that with the traditional post paid system they are being robbed.

The consumer is shielded from penalties associated with late bill payments. It does not matter how astute you are with bill payments one time or the other this penalty will catch up with you.

Vending points are normally located near the consumers so the extra cost of “going to town” to pay the bill, cheques, and funds transfer fees is cut out hence the perception is one is getting electricity for “free” i.e. no extra expenses to access electricity.

When there is load shedding for whatever reason your meter will “store” your electricity until you are back on the grid as opposed to having a bill at the end of the month even though the whole month you were without electricity.

One gets to avoid the security risk of meter readers which ranges from the readers abusing their privilege ending up stealing from your premises or thieves masquerading as meter readers.

Meter readers might not even read your meter resulting you in paying for an estimated reading and getting ripped off by the electricity company.

The electricity distributor collects its revenue before supplying the product – electricity.

Bad debtors on post paid meters can be converted to prepaid and have their debt linked so that whenever they purchase electricity a certain percentage goes to service their debt. There are, though, some demerits pertaining to prepaid electricity ranging from a slightly higher cost to inconvenience if you forget to “top up” or recharge. These disadvantages are, however, outweighed by the advantages to the point that most countries have phased out the traditional post paid systems for domestic metering with all new household dwellings coming with prepaid meters installed.

It is pertinent to mention it here that the first electricity prepayment meter was developed and used in Africa. It was, to be precise, developed in South Africa in the late 80s with the objective of using it in low income households with erratic incomes.
But by the late 90s electricity prepayment had permeated Europe and Asia and was also adopted for gas and water metering.
The concept of prepaid metering is not new having been used in coins operated gas meters well before World War II. It is therefore, without doubt, imperative that Zesa and the Ministry concerned move with speed in implementing electricity prepayment as it is a clear win-win situation.