General Manager’s Message To Personnel

2022 Performances are stable compared to 2021

In 2023, let’s do more, with less: Austerity is also synonymous with opportunities and creativity

A story to be proud of in Bonaberi

When I visited the teams working after the incident that burnt the Bonaberi Substation, I
was proud of being part of Eneo. I still feel this pride as I write to you.

I saw committed teams, working relentlessly, to put smiles on the faces of customers who had already spent days without electricity. I admired the speed, the creativity they demonstrated, the cohesion amongst colleagues on the field and support functions, the problem-solving spirit everyone had.

To celebrate their achievement, I was delighted to share a meal with all those involved.

Why am I telling you this small story?

Because it is my vision of Eneo. And even of the sector, because we witnessed seamless collaboration Eneo between Sonatrel on the field, supported by the State, for the greater good of our customers. That was excellent!

This work site was a vivid demonstration of all our values. I have no doubt that there exist, companywide, several similar projects, which could be transformed into best practices.

To all those work this way, you have my encouragements and admiration. Come 2023, I would like to share a meal with other deserving teams.

Based on the above experience, you have understood what motivates me, and makes me come to work every morning...You!

Personnel motivation: one of my top priorities

You must also have guessed why I made personnel motivation topmost in my priorities when I came into office last April. As part of this, we carried out the following actions, among others:

• Signed our new collective bargaining agreement before the end of 2022. It will be comprehensively implemented in 2023;
• Resume the Labour-Medals award ceremonies for Deserving Workers, 500 of whom received their medals in 2022. The awards will continue in 2023;
• Reviewed the salaries of 93% of personnel after the company took part in a salary survey in 2021. This was a retro-active operation that started in January 2022;
• Strengthened internal actions for active listening, improvement of career prospects and working conditions of personnel, in particular through responses to complaints, job postings, regular holding of internal reclassification commissions, Hygiene and Workplace Safety Committees, and Legal Establishment Meetings;
• Regularized the payment of pending overtime dues to Workers;
• Designed and implemented training courses for Workers in several key areas relating to the company’s performances.

These are indeed notable steps forward. I am aware that much still needs to be done! I will continue doing what it takes, as Eneo’s resources permit.

Despite challenges, we generally performed well in 2022...

We have been on this journey for nine months now. And now that we have come to the tail-end of the year, I would like us to take stock and then, project into 2023.

This year, our company was considerably impacted by several constraints:

• An increasingly tight cash-flow situation;
• The post COVID 19 crisis ;
• The security crisis in the North West, South West and Far North Regions;
• An overall energy demand that increased by 2.5% ;
• Unfavourable hydrology in the Northern Interconnected Grid, drastically reducing the generation capacity of the Lagdo dam;
• A customer base that is increasingly demanding improvement in service quality, but has a low purchasing power;
• Difficulties in accessing some localities covered by the networks;
• The numerous actors in the sector who aren’t sufficiently known to the general public, but who continue strengthening the perception that Eneo is to blame, even when it is not at fault.

Despite these challenges, our performances remained relatively stable compared to 2021. This means that overall we did a great job!

The Management Committee and I would like to congratulate all those who worked hard.

This is also an opportunity to acknowledge the great contribution from all those who unfortunately left us this year.

Here are a few key facts about our performances:

• Our proactive safety indicators are all green, and we didn’t receive any fine for any environmental breach;
• Eneo-run generation facilities contributed more, thanks to their improved availability, to the country’s energy mix; 
• The return to operation of the Lagdo dam, with a filling rate of 100%, after two years of a severe low water level, restored service quality stability in the Northern part of the country;
• The injection of 14MWs of solar capacities into the North Interconnected Grid, to strengthen the restored stability of the Lagdo dam;
• 174 029 new customers connected to the distribution network (under first access and regularisation), i.e. 100% achievement rate compared to the forecasts at the end of September 2022;
• Intensification of prepaid metre deployment, causing a 115% increase in the volumes of prepaid consumption, when compared to 2021;
• Active customer billing at 99%, representing a forecast achievement rate of 100% and stabilization, compared to the previous year. Active low voltage customers increased from 1.69 to 1.88 million, representing an 11% increase in the Customer Portfolio;
• Closer attention, with disconnections actions, to recovery of autonomous debts, councils, State and reimbursable works;
• The overall drop in the frequency and duration of power outages, from a Generation and a Distribution perspective, helped drive the general perception on service quality when compared to 2021. This was observed during major tournaments such as AFCON and the football World Cup. Permit me acknowledge our Generation, Distribution, Commerce and Support teams involved in these positive results; and who are working to cover end-of-year celebrations!
• A 3.2% increase in Distribution Efficiency, largely driven by the success of our programme to convert illegal consumers, as well as the continuation of our anti-fraud drive.
• Here, we converted over 86 201 illegal customers by end September, representing a completion rate of 86% of the overall objective for 2022; 81 381 of whom were prepaid metres and 4 820 post-paid metres;
• Similarly, we normalised 65 577 defective installations, representing 88% when compared to the 2022 objective; 50 003 with prepaid meters, 9 368 with post-paid and 6 406 with smart metres;
• Over 87 429 installations inspected for 43 GWh of regularisation bills collected at a rate of 22%, as part of intensification of the anti-fraud drive in urban and rural towns.
• Optimised fuel management, in particular as a result of improved hydrology in the Northern Region, as well as better control of generation dispatch;
• Effective deployment of the first phase of the SAP application;
• Financial achievements related to EBITDA are better than the previous year by 7.8%, mainly due to the reduction of commercial losses;
• Better collection rates, excluding the State and its related services;
• Continuation of our actions to clean up the finances of the electricity sector, with the invaluable support of the Government;
• Internally, the safety culture is becoming more and more established. Thanks to increased awareness and the mobilisation of resources by top management;
• Progress in our communications drives have further clarified the roles and duties of each actor in the sector. This helps to slowly, but progressively, change the things we hear customers, the media, consumer associations and other opinion leaders say;
• Connection with our communities has been strengthened, despite the scarcity of finances. Our commitment to contribute to the development of our communities has resulted in a series of actions, the main ones being: the construction of boreholes, the supply of solar energy to some underprivileged communities, remote health centres or schools, construction of distribution networks in sensitive localities, etc.

Some challenges and areas of improvement to work on…

WhiIe it is difficult to be exhaustive about our achievements in 2022, we need to appreciate them for what they are worth. However, we should not rest on our laurels, as there are still many areas where we need to improve quickly. I would like to mention some of them:

• Safety: strengthening the presence of leadership in the field, to further enhance the safety culture. Increase awareness of the risks related to electricity;
• Fixed costs: We have to save 8 billion. We have no choice but to do even better than in 2022, but with a smaller budget. I have no doubt that in this context of frailty, we will be able to identify opportunities and be creative, for the benefit of Eneo, as well as for our own development;
• Collection: I am fond of saying "Cash is King". We have to do everything we can to get the money belonging to the electricity sector back into the coffers, in an ethical manner!
• Project governance: let's improve our management of investment projects, from their start-up, execution and especially closing. We must do better than the 67% of budgets committed and 64% of projects actually started in 2022;
• Procurement: let's improve our planning. Nothing should be purchased that is not a priority! We currently have an incredible dormant stock (+50 billion), which we must reduce to 40 billion by 2023;
• Internal control and compliance: let's increase our controls to anticipate risks to the company. In 2022, we unfortunately had to let go of several colleagues, including managers. The implementation of our values remains non-negotiable. Our Zero Tolerance policy will be applied without hesitation in view of the current and future challenges we face;
• Commercial service quality: let's improve the reception in our physical agencies and other contact points, connect more new customers and on time, invoice and collect better. Going forward, digitalisation of our commercial processes is key ; we must transition from a brick-and-mortar culture to a digital culture ;
• Stakeholder management: this must be guided more by the idea of making them allies of the Eneo vision. This mission is doomed to failure if we ourselves are not ambassadors for Eneo;
• Perception of Eneo: our communications should be strengthened to enable the public to understand Eneo's distinctive role in the sector, as well as its progress in contributing to the improvement of the quality of electricity service. More than through communication, this improved perception will be driven by the actions we take, each in our own field, in support of the collective effort;
• Organisation: we will continue to make it lean and mean, evolving from a Taylor organisation to a process driven culture.

Our Goals for 2023

2023 is already around the corner. It comes with even greater challenges, in a context of scarce resources; and surely with many opportunities as well.

Let's always keep in mind the performance and control indicators for our operations, as set out in the last amendment to the concession agreement. They require us to be more rigorous, and to have more robust and irreproachable governance than we have had up to now.

The continued consolidation of the sector's finances will enable us to mobilise more resources to finance our investments. This is the case with the financing that is being negotiated with local banks and international lenders. This requires us to improve the consumption rate and the ethics around our investment budgets, which stand at CFAF 65 billion in 2023. Management intends to play its part fully and is committed to making the budgets available from the first days of January 2023, so that commitments can be made immediately.

Our ambitions in 2023 are also reflected in the objectives outlined below:

Each of us, directly or indirectly, has an impact on all these objectives. Let us spare no effort to continue contributing to Eneo's success in order to further consolidate Eneo's role as a driving force in the electricity sector.

In addition to our values - Commitment, Respect, Integrity, Cohesion - I am adding Discipline, Rigour and Control... to strengthen the foundation on which we must build our achievements in 2023, and beyond.

At the beginning of my message, I told you that I was motivated to a large extent by you.

And you, what is it that motivates you?

I will let each of you think about that, and act accordingly...

In 2023, more than in the past, let's pay attention to the increasingly demanding and impatient customers as time goes by. In each of our actions, each of our initiatives, let us think about the customer. Each of us must re-echo the concerns of our customers internally, and direct them to the various solutions that we are putting in place.

Happy end-of-year festivities!
I wish you and your loved ones happiness and success in 2023!

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Patrick Eeckelers,
General Manager