Obstructions in Electric Bill Payment: The case of Ethiopian Electric Utility Jimma District

Abstract

In spite of the low-cost recovery levels of the utility companies in developing countries, consumers often faced with the problem of inaccuracy and delay in monthly billing due to the drawback in reading pattern and human errors, and the problem is more sever in conventional billing and metering systems. However, digital payment systems have believed to solve problems associated with conventional method of bill payment there are still complaints from EEU customers. The purpose of this study is to identify obstructions of electric bill payments in EEU Jimma district, Agaro and Sokoru town customer service centers (CSCs). Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. In this study, 238 sample respondents were selected from two CSCs in Agaro and Sokoru town. An interview questionnaire was used to collect their opinion. The data were analysed using SPSS version 20. The descriptive result of the study shows the majority of customers pay their electric bill on a cash basis, meter reader read meter irregularly and customers wait for a long times to pay their electric bill at CSCs. The findings of binary logistic regression further revealed that employment status, simplicity, compatibility, and relative advantages have a positive and significant effect on the adoption of online electric bill payment while trialability, observability, customer type, income and educational level were found to be insignificant in this study. In addition to this age has a negative and significant relationship with the adoption of online electric bill payments. Finally, feasible recommendation has been made on identified challenges regarding electric bill payment.