Ethiopian Electric Power’s Interest Charges Waived
Ethiopian Electric Power’s interest charges on new connection installment plans have been officially waived. Engineer Getu Geremew, the CEO of Ethiopian Electric Power, announced that the company has ended the interest charges previously added to installment payments for new connections.
Before this announcement, if you wanted a new electricity connection but couldn’t pay the full amount upfront, you could spread your payments out over a period of up to 24 months. That part hasn’t changed. Previously, once your payment period exceeded 6 months, the company would start charging interest of up to 9% on the remaining balance. Now that extra cost is gone entirely.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the old system versus the new one:
- Old system: Interest of up to 9% kicked in after 6 months of installment payments.
- New system: No interest at all, no matter how long you take within the 24-month window.
- Payment period: Still up to 24 months, unchanged.
Getting rid of Ethiopian Electric Power’s interest charges makes the whole process much more affordable for regular families and small business owners who need to pay over time. It’s a simple change, but it has a real effect. Without the added interest, your monthly payments stay lower and more predictable. You’re paying for the connection itself, not any extra fees.
Ethiopian Electric Power want to get more people connected. Since the company rolled out its new meter installation process back in June 2018 (Ethiopian Calendar), the results have changed. Just two weeks after that launch, 19,231 new customers gained access to electricity.
In the 2018 fiscal year (Ethiopian Calendar), EEP connected 664,505 new customers. The company is aiming to connect 1.1 million new customers in the 2019 fiscal year (Ethiopian Calendar). Over its entire 70-year history, EEP has connected a total of 5.88 million customers. The company says it now has the capacity to connect up to 1 million customers every year.
If EEP wants to hit that 1.1 million target, cost can’t be the reason people say no. Removing interest charges is a practical way to clear that hurdle. More people can say yes to a new connection when the payment plan is simpler and cheaper.
