City tackles debtors, helps pensioners
The City of Windhoek has deployed a debt management company to recover arrears of 120 days or more owed by both residents and businesses totalling around N$450 million.
In a public notice issued earlier this month, the municipality announced it had appointed Redforce Debt Management as “part of its aggressive efforts to recover debts” on accounts that have defaulted for 120 days or more.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya confirmed to Namibian Sun's sister newspaper Windhoek Express (WE) that individuals are in arrears of 120 days or longer by around N$321 million, while business owe the city around N$113 million.
She confirmed to WE that a debt collector was appointed to handle the accounts in arrears because a number of internal debt collection strategies did not pay off.
“It's become impractical to handle it ourselves,” Amutenya said. She said even when the municipality had arranged formal agreements for clients in arrears, most failed to comply with them.
As a result, the municipality announced the appointment of Redforce. Once handed over, debtors “are encouraged to arrange with Redforce for payment arrangements and all payments will be done directly to the municipality”.
Defaulters moreover are at risk of accruing additional costs - 10% of the handed over balance - involved in collecting the debt.
Discount
Meanwhile, the municipality's 30% electricity pensioner's discount on electricity tariffs has already been snapped up by around 900 pensioners, and more are still to benefit after the City extended the sign-up deadline until further notice.
City of Windhoek mayor Muesee Kazapua announced in May that the city council had approved the discount for pensioners who have prepaid meters. Pensioners with conventional meters can benefit too as the City will convert their meters to prepaid ones for free.
The discounted tariff means beneficiaries will be N$1.44 per kWh, while the normal tariff is N$2.05 per kWh. The discount is also only applicable to the first 250kWh units purchased each month.
A municipal officer confirmed last week that only pensioners who own property or live in an old-age home quality for the discount.
Kazapua at the time said the decision was based on the municipality's aim to continue reviewing existing policies “with the aim to making them more pro-social, particularly to our pensioners and vulnerable residents”.
He underlined that the benefit only applies to pensioners with pre-paid electricity meters, and advised that in line with this, pensioners must register for their pre-paid installations in order to benefit from “this generous gesture without delay”.
The implementation of the pensioners discount tariff commenced in March this year and continues until further notice.
JANA-MARI SMITH
In a public notice issued earlier this month, the municipality announced it had appointed Redforce Debt Management as “part of its aggressive efforts to recover debts” on accounts that have defaulted for 120 days or more.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya confirmed to Namibian Sun's sister newspaper Windhoek Express (WE) that individuals are in arrears of 120 days or longer by around N$321 million, while business owe the city around N$113 million.
She confirmed to WE that a debt collector was appointed to handle the accounts in arrears because a number of internal debt collection strategies did not pay off.
“It's become impractical to handle it ourselves,” Amutenya said. She said even when the municipality had arranged formal agreements for clients in arrears, most failed to comply with them.
As a result, the municipality announced the appointment of Redforce. Once handed over, debtors “are encouraged to arrange with Redforce for payment arrangements and all payments will be done directly to the municipality”.
Defaulters moreover are at risk of accruing additional costs - 10% of the handed over balance - involved in collecting the debt.
Discount
Meanwhile, the municipality's 30% electricity pensioner's discount on electricity tariffs has already been snapped up by around 900 pensioners, and more are still to benefit after the City extended the sign-up deadline until further notice.
City of Windhoek mayor Muesee Kazapua announced in May that the city council had approved the discount for pensioners who have prepaid meters. Pensioners with conventional meters can benefit too as the City will convert their meters to prepaid ones for free.
The discounted tariff means beneficiaries will be N$1.44 per kWh, while the normal tariff is N$2.05 per kWh. The discount is also only applicable to the first 250kWh units purchased each month.
A municipal officer confirmed last week that only pensioners who own property or live in an old-age home quality for the discount.
Kazapua at the time said the decision was based on the municipality's aim to continue reviewing existing policies “with the aim to making them more pro-social, particularly to our pensioners and vulnerable residents”.
He underlined that the benefit only applies to pensioners with pre-paid electricity meters, and advised that in line with this, pensioners must register for their pre-paid installations in order to benefit from “this generous gesture without delay”.
The implementation of the pensioners discount tariff commenced in March this year and continues until further notice.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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