Paying for electricity bills with Mobile Money

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday November 7, 2013 at 8:19:20:

Having a mobile money account allows the user to do a lot of things such as settling bills related to electricity. In Nigeria, mobile money can be used to pay for your electric bills whether you are on a prepaid and postpaid billing system.

When it comes to paying for services on the prepaid meter billing, it normally requires the purchase of a meter token which contains a set of numbers/PIN that would be used in topping some credit to the prepaid meter. I've been able to use my mobile money account to buy meter tokens time and time again without having to go to the PHCN/NEPA office and it was quite convenient.

What it takes to buy meter tokens for your electricity meter using mobile money is by basically dialing a USSD code or accessing the mobile money menu on your phone, requesting for meter tokens, selecting the amount, entering your meter number and using your PIN to complete the purchase.

It is quite safe and it works a bit like an ATM card in that you'd need to enter a 4 digit PIN before money can actually move out of your Mobile money account.

You will be able to confirm the transaction ensuring that things like the meter number and mobile phone or email that would receive the token are correct.

For post paid electricity billing, it works in a similar way and you just need to select that from the menu after selecting pay electric bills. A receipt will be issued to your email or phone and your account will be debited with the amount.

When paying for electric bills, I've noticed that at times there is a small charge called a convenience fee which is a fixed feed that one may have to pay. For some Mobile money providers, it may be a free service and for some, there may be an additional charge.

Once you've been successful in paying for the PHCN electric bills, you'll get a notification for the transaction.

If you ask me, using mobile money to pay for your electric bill is more convenient than visiting the office where they may be a queue and you'd also have to pay for transportation.