Strugglies, as Small Businesses Suffocating Amid Power Crisis

NIGERIA- Sorting out the crippled electricity industry will prove to be one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s greatest challenges.

 

Ileowo Kikiowo owns a small media company in Nigeria’s frenetic, financial hub of Lagos, and like any business around the world it depends on electricity to stay afloat.

But keeping the lights on and computers running is a constant headache for the 28-year-old because Nigeria produces just 1.5 percent of the electricity it needs for its 173-million people.

“Over 70 percent of my costs goes on electricity,” says Kikiowo, who, like many others, relies almost exclusively on expensive, fuel- hungry generators to run his business.

He still has to foot a monthly bill for power that rarely makes an appearance. Sometimes, even fuel for the generator runs out.

Corruption, conflicting interests, mismanagement and labour unrest have for years plagued Nigeria’s power sector, making it one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s main challenges.

The 2013 privatisation of much of the state-run Power Holding Company of Nigeria – dubbed ‘Please Hold Candle Nearby’ – did nothing to alleviate the dire electricity shortage.

Billions of naira were put into the process, and 17 private generation and distribution firms created. The result is that Nigeria generates less electricity than before the reform.

Nigerians fed up with waiting for the state to re- solve the problem have come to depend on genera- tors. In Lagos, the nauseating fumes of generators that need to be serviced fill the air in a mega city of 20-million people.

Aside from health concerns, power shortages can, and have, destroyed livelihoods. Kola Balogun was forced to close his small welding business in Lagos due to lack of power.

Now he drives motorbike taxis for a living.

“I had to close the shop because of debts. I was col- lecting money from cus- tomers to do their jobs but electricity was not available. I resorted to renting genera- tors to complete the job but, unfortunately, the money paid by the customers was not enough to cover the cost of generator rental,” he was quoted as saying in a report by urban developer Look- man Oshodi.

Nigeria’s manufacturers’ association estimates that up to 40 percent of production costs go towards electricity supply. In developed countries, the figure is 10 percent or less.

The lack of public lighting in some parts of the country has created a fertile breeding ground for crime, pushing some citizens to take matters into their own hands.

In a run-down district of Lagos, a man fixes a lamp onto a street post as motor- cycles rush by and children living in a cramped house look on.

He is a volunteer for a charity founded by Bode Edun.

The group sets up street lamps in the dark- est areas and hooks them onto generators belonging to participating households, churches and mosques.

“Where there is light there will be more security and less issues of rape and armed robbery,” says Edun.

Oshodi says Buhari has made sorting out the crippled power sector one of the priorities of his four-year term, but he faces a tough challenge.

Part of the problem is that most plants are powered by gas, which is in short supply.

Oshodi believes a shift to renewable energy would help.

“Many of the power plants are shut down be- cause there is no gas to power them. If we have renewable energy and a com- mitment to that sector, we will not be tied down to one particular product. That is where President Buhari can come in,” he says.