Entire Story:
Unending Power Outages Take Toll on Ordinary Nigerians
The incessant power outages currently rocking the length and breadth of the country maker no longer news to the average man. But what might be news is the huge financial hole it has dug and is still digging in the purses of small scale businesses and artisans around the country.
A visit to Ojo, a suburb of Lagos, reveals that majority of the businesses around have had to jerk up the prices of their various services and this has really affected their clientele. Mr Sesan Olubiyo, owns a cybercafé in the area, he confirmed that before. The recent power outage rocking the nation, his environment had been meant to share or rotate power with the neighbouring environment.
"It has been a situation of one day off, two days on in the whole Iba area of Ojo, and even at that on the so called on-days, power would only be restored for just about five to six hours at the most and it is quite appalling as you need to see the way people look forward to these days only for them to now be given light for just six hours, and worst of all the bills keep coming. In my little establishment here, energy alone gulps about thirty thousand naira every month, rent is about eight thousand naira, and salaries and miscellaneous expenses gulp about fifteen thousand. And from this breakdown you can see for a fact that energy consumes the highest resources, which is not supposed to be if there was steady power supply. The extra funds on diesel would have been used to take care of some other parts of the business, be it expansion or maintenance and these too have affected our charges as we need to find a way to accommodate the extra expenses on power generation."
This cybercafe operator is not alone. In another encounter, the Managing director of Rufus Steel complex in Idimu area of Lagos, Mr. Akanni Rufus, also confirmed that it has been terrible in his area especially since the early part of the year when power outages became more pronounced and on a national scale. He stated that it is even more difficult because he has had to hire a generating set big enough to power the heavy appliances he works with daily whenever he has a job on hand, whether it is urgent or not.
His words: "We need to hire a generating set as we cannot afford one and the nature of our job is such that we can't do a thing without power, and this we never have. It is so bad here that we have had reasons to wake up several times during the night to come here and work since me and most of my boys live next door. That is the situation we have found ourselves. We can't work even if we have work to do."
Yet another small business operator, this time a printer, had similar tales of woes to tell. In Olodi-Apapa area of Lagos is Kaspco press, where the main overhead is purchase of diesel to power the printing machines. A staff of the company who simply identified himself as Tunde said that the press has been constantly on diesel for over three months now. The unpleasant flip side is that the printing firm dare not increase charges for fear of alienating their modest clientele. Tunde stated that theirs is a very competitive sector where some other presses can afford to lower charges just to build its customer base. As a result, those who review or have reviewed their charges upwards would only have to cope with less customers as all a customer is after is getting quality service at affordable rates.
"We buy diesel here the moment we have a job on hand. In fact we no longer think of NEPA or PHCN. The story is always sad; so the general thinking is that whoever is serious about going into any business today must have power generation as one of his topmost considerations lest he be chased out of business even before commencement.
Worst hit are artisans like welders, iron benders, business centres, and cottage operators like grinding machine owners, hairdressers, barbers, beer parlour owners, and sundry shopkeepers. At the domestic level, the power situation has taken its toll on day-to-day living.
Mr. Sikiru Babalola, an electrical contractor believes that if things keep going the way they are, it will have unspeakable repercussions on the economy.
"The power supply situation is, to say the least, horrible. There is no light at home or at work. You sweat throughout the night and the day, and you can't even get your thirst. Those who have generators run them throughout the night. I own a small one too, but I buy about N500 petrol daily. Imagine that in a month! That is good money I can use elsewhere to make life easier, but or PHCN makes that impossible. I'm just tired of the whole thing jare," he said.
Mr. Benjamin Kolawole is owner and operator of Heritage 'B' Garden, a leisure spot in Egbe, a suburb of Lagos. When asked of his comments on the power situation and its effects on his enterprise, Kolawole had this to say:
"It's like we just open shop so that people can still have a place to come to after work or at leisure. The electricity supply has eroded whatever margins we hoped to live on. I had to get a diesel generator, and I buy diesel worth N8,000 weekly. That comes to N32,000 a month. On the few occasions that there is public power supply, the frequency is so bad. It fluctuates so much that you cannot use it, or else, all your electrical appliances will be destroyed. Then you spend money on repairs or getting new ones.
"As a leisure spot operator, we have hi-fi music systems, cable television, refrigerators, air-conditioners, and the like. They are routinely spoilt by public electricity. My brother, I'm just very tired of the whole situation. One day, God will rescue us in this country."
One of Kolawole's customers who refused to be named, overhearing his comments added:
"The power situation is why you have so many area boys and agberos all over the place. It is also why the militias are able to recruit many young men into their fold. Do you know that in the ranks of the militias are to be found skilled welders, barbers, electricians, and others whose vocations depend on electricity? Since there is no light, they will find other things to do. I can even say that if power is stable, area boys will reduce, as well as other crimes too."
Mrs. Bunmi Kudaisi is a hairdresser and operates a salon in the Ejigbo area of Lagos. On the power situation, she said that cobwebs are growing in her hair dryers.
"There is always no light to operate them. I struggled to buy a generator, but I can't raise charges to fuel and maintain it, or else I'll lose customers. So now I do weaving, and sell tailoring materials to augment my income," she said, pointing to a showcase containing threads, buttons, needles, zips, etc.
A visit to a PHCN office in Lagos Island reveals that zone by zone, the utility company has been working round the clock to see the possibility of improving the lot of electricity consumers in their various zones. A senior official of the company who pleaded anonymity stated that though efforts are being made round the clock to bring the situation back to normal, nobody can actually state when things would be settled again. But in various zones of the company efforts are on to reduce the sufferings of the people by introducing various measures that can help ease their pains as regards incessant power outages.
Further investigations revealed that in Eko Distribution Zone for instance, a rapid response team has been set up such that they would be in position to respond to any emergency around the zone. Their hotlines have been made public and as such members of the public are also expected to call these lines whenever there is an emergency in their domain. Added to these, the zones has also distributed over thirty transformers to power consumers in its domain to ease the load on the current transformers on the ground. Other zones too are emulating these strides and putting measures in place to ease the stress of incessant power outages being faced by power consumers in their various domains.