CoW pleased with TID rollover
The Windhoek municipality says up to 99.68% of all prepaid water and power meters in the capital have been adjusted, with the deadline of 23 November looming, and the warning to disable old meters.Since last year, the entire country has been on the TID (token identifier) rollout campaign to update meters before prepaid services are closed due to the restriction on the use of the outdated coupon system (token system).
Taking prepaid power meters into account, a total of 57 377 meters have been updated, according to the Windhoek Municipality, with only 184 meters yet to be converted.
This indicates a success rate of 99.68% against 0.31% which is still outstanding. Furthermore, 1 919 prepaid water meters have also been adjusted, with 136 still outstanding.
The municipality says that it only uses Syntell's services to provide prepaid services and that the single vendor system is already at STS6 standard.
"Subsellers do not need updates, as they simply issue coupons generated by Syntell's main sales system," the municipality said.
The municipality also denies rumours that there are software issues with the transition to the new system, saying no delays have been experienced, except for occasional network outages.
Only 73 meters had to be completely replaced because they were too old to upgrade.
Furthermore, the entire campaign was completed internally by municipal employees, without any external contractors, the municipality said.
Prepaid revenue is vital to the capital, with around N$55 million collected monthly, just for power supply.
For the 2023 financial year from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, Windhoek collected more than N$685 million from the sale of power supply services.
“While some clients were initially reluctant to grant us access to their property, the awareness about the project and the fact that they could confirm the identity of the officials with the municipality before they were allowed to enter respective properties, was decisive, ” according to the municipality.
Customers are encouraged to contact the dedicated office to update prepaid meters directly if required. The office can be reached on 061 2902242, while the municipal call centre can also be helpful.
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