Frustration as Dar hit by ‘Luku’ crisis

Buguruni residents queue to buy electricity at Tanesco’s pay-as-you-go ‘Luku’ centre in Dar es Salaam yesterday.  PHOTO|EMMANUEL HERMAN 

By Saumu Mwalimu and Bernard Lugongo, The Citizen Reporters

In Summary

Selcom is the largest vendor of Luku services through all four mobile financial service operators namely Vodacom’s M-pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money and Zantel’s EzyPesa, 35 banks through mobile banking and over 11,000 retail points of sale terminals countrywide as it accounts for 75 per cent of all Luku traffic countrywide.

Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam residents were forced to spend long hours queuing at various Luku vending stations after a mobile system went down and Tanesco stopped using Selcom services.

Selcom is the largest vendor of Luku services through all four mobile financial service operators
namely Vodacom’s M-pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money and Zantel’s EzyPesa, 35 banks through mobile banking and over 11,000 retail points of sale terminals countrywide as it accounts for 75 per cent of all Luku traffic countrywide.

But on Thursday the minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr George Simbachawene, directed the state-run power firm, Tanesco, to stop its contract with Selcom on allegations that the latter had failed to deliver.

It seems that Tanesco took the decision without proper planning as spot checks established long queues at almost all luku vending stations operated by Tanesco itself.

This reporter witnessed a long queue at Mlimani City vending station that made some customers wait up to 11pm before they were able to buy power.

Ms Caroline Robert told this paper, her attempt to purchase power via her mobile phone failed since Wednesday until Thursday evening when she received a notification from her mobile network that she cannot get the service and urged her to go for it to a nearby Tanesco Luku agent.

“I am here since 6pm, and as you can see it’s 9.30 already. I have to get power because I don’t have a single unit and my home is in darkness,” she said.

Another customer who introduced himself as Mr Salum, who is running a pub in Sinza surbub blamed Tanesco for failure to notify its customers.

In another development, Tanesco said in a half-page statement yesterday that its customers could purchase power from Maxcom centres, CRDB and NMB Bank ATMs, NMB mobile banking as well as Tanesco offices countrywide.

The statement issued by Tanesco Public Relations Office at the headquarters in Dar es Salaam said, as part of measures to minimise the crisis, all Luku centres selling Luku would remain open from 8 in the morning to 8 pm on all days, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Meanwhile, barely a day after Energy and Minerals Minister George Simbachawene directed Tanesco to revoke its contract with Selcom, the company appealed to him to rescind his decision yesterday.

Mr Simbachawene’s directive came after alleged failure in supplying pre-paid power (Luku) service to its customers and violating tax requirements.