How three-week blackout destroyed businesses, others in Kano

Residents in some parts of Kano metropolis heaved a sigh of relief after the restoration of electricity supply at about 21:00 Wednesday after about three weeks of total blackout.

However, Arewa PUNCH investigations revealed that many parts of the state were yet to see light in light of the fact that only 40 megawatts were given to KEDCO for distribution to its franchise states – Kano Katsina and Jigawa – pending when the repair work will be completed.

Our correspondent reports that although electricity has been restored to some parts of the state, the prolonged blackout in the affected northern part of the country has completely ruined the lives of many artisans, including electrical appliance repairers and refrigerator repairers.

The situation has also crippled socio-economic activities in Kano as residents had to contend with various challenges of life ranging from inadequate water supply and escalating expenditure on food and other services.

The power cut, which started about three weeks ago, forced many residents of the city to resort to using sachet water for their daily use as water supply from the state water board has not been regular following the sustained blackout.

The high cost of sachet water or table water may not be independent of the blackout because many manufacturers of the commodity have also closed their factories due to the blackout.

The power cuts, outages combined with the high cost of diesel and fuel have made life unbearable for many residents, especially the less privileged who are in the majority of the worst affected.

As a result of the situation, the water sellers have also hiked their prices by about 200 percent as a 25-litre jerry can which used to sell at N50 now goes for between N150 and N200 due to lack of electricity supply.

One of the water sellers, Musa Mairuwa, told our reporter that before now he used to pay N100 to fill his 20 jerry cans from the commercial borehole owners but now he has to pay N500 to fill the same number of jerry cans.

“Before the blackout, I pay a little to fill my 10 jerry cans from the borehole owners, but now because of the blackout, they have to buy diesel and fuel to run their generators, which is expensive,” Mairuwa said.

Similarly, the prices of sachet water or known as table water have also increased depending on the quality of the product.

For example, the price of Iceberg which is one of the best table water in Kano increased from N300 for (a bag of 20 pieces) to N600 while the prices of the regular ones were sold at N300 as against N150.

As long as the blackout lasted, many small industries collapsed, while the few that managed to function did so at very high cost due to the prolonged blackout and high cost of petroleum products.

Most of the small business owners have been put out of business within the duration of the total power outage.

Others also affected were tailors, barbers, grinding machine operators, business center operators and welders, among the bunch.

The situation had also affected schools, especially higher institutions and hospitals where power supply is very important. Many patients in hospitals were reported to have lost their lives during the three-week blackout.

“Most of these small business owners had to stop using generators because of the high cost of diesel. So with the current power situation, we have no alternative but to continue to wait for power to be restored,” a welder lamented to Arewa PUNCH Wednesday.

Also commenting on the issue, the Kano State Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Abdulrashid Magaji, said the blackout had severely affected the processing industry, especially rice millers.

He lamented that most of such processing plants had to be shut down while the power supply was out because they could not run on diesel due to its escalating cost of the product.

He attributed the rising cost of rice and other key commodities to the current power outage in the country, stressing that most processing industries were either operating at skeleton levels or have completed shutdown.

“Many of the processing companies only operate when there is a power supply. How did you expect them to function now when there was a total blackout,’ he asked.

He maintained that the current situation calls for urgent and serious intervention by both the state and federal governments if the economy is to be saved, even as he hailed President Tinubu for mandating the Minister of Power to ensure that electricity supply is restored in the affected northern states. suffered from blackout.

Arewa PUNCH recalls that President Bola Tinubu had on Monday directed the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, and other relevant agencies to speed up the work of restoring electricity to all the affected states in the North.

Tinubu gave the directive in a meeting with Adelabu who briefed him on the efforts of the Transmission Company of Nigeria to repair the damaged Shiroro-Kaduna transmission lines at Aso Rock Villa.

Tinubu also warned that the Federal Government will no longer tolerate deliberate sabotage and destruction of public facilities.

Meanwhile, not a few energy observers have praised the federal government for fulfilling its promise on Tuesday to speed up efforts to restore power to the northern part of the country after widespread blackouts.

The Minister of Energy, Adebayo Adelabu, had promised members of the National Assembly that total power would return to the region within 14 days, meaning the 17 affected states will not remain without electricity by Tuesday, November 12, 2024.