Tanesco acting MD says company’s technician had already solved 70 per cent of the problem
Dar es Salaam. The management of Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) has assured its clients that the pre-paid (Luku) service will get back to normal by the close of business today.
Tanesco acting managing director Decklan Mhaki said by yesterday the company’s technician had already solved 70 per cent of the problem which started on Sunday.
“We extend our humble apology to all our customers who have been affected…we know the situation left many city residents in despair but that was not our intention,” he said.
Mr Mhaki ruled out the possibility of sabotage and said the situation was a result of problems in the company’s computer systems. To avoid similar situations in the future, he said, Tanesco was already in the middle of major rehabilitation of its Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems.
Tanesco’s ICT senior manager Kusenha Mazengo said the problem was caused by an application fault in the system that the company uses to interact with Luku vendors known as Extended Vending Gateway (EVG).
“That (EVG) is a secured linkage between us and all vendors and due to the fault their electricity purchase request was not getting to us and therefore transactions could not be completed,” he said.
He said his technicians are dealing with the remaining 30 per cent of the problem and they are closely monitoring the peak time, when the recharging traffic is high between 4pm to 10 pm. “If all goes well the system will become 100 per cent stable by the close of business on Wednesday,” he said.
From Sunday city resindent were struggling in vain to pay for electricity in vain. Long lines has been observed in Luku vending stations with clients hoping the system was to stabilize any time soon but days passed.
This led cross-section of residents who spoke to The Citizen to blame Tanesco for poor services, saying the failure to recharge their accounts was hindering progress.
