Printers charge Lagos state government to fulfil commitment on Shomolu IPP

Printers in Shomolu commercial cluster have charged the Lagos State government to fulfill itsdeclaration to build a dedicated independent power plant for the government’s facilities inShomolu and Yaba to ease the acute power supply currently witnessed in the area.

BusinessDay inquiries reveal that power supply in Shomolu and environs have reduced to aboutthree hours weekly supply resulting in smallprinting presses spending between N7,000 – N10,000 daily on fuel to power generators while larger ones burn between N15,000 and 22,000daily.

This is despite revenue the state generatesfrom the printers. BusinessDay gathered that small presses within Shomolu numbering over 500 pay at least N5,000 each per month forpermits and larger presses are required to pay 30 percent of earnings as income tax to the Federal government and still make deductions for pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) to Lagos State.This is in addition to sundry levies including for Radio and Television exacted by Shomolu local government.

Mohammed Abubakar, registrar Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) said, “We call on the Lagos state government to intervene in this matter as this problem is threatening our members.”

Shomolu, in Lagos mainland, is the biggest printing cluster in Nigeria, employing over15,000 people including printers, lithographic machine operators, binders, paper dealers and artisans.

Printing presses there now spend over 30 percent of their operating cost on self power generation as they accuse the Ikeja powerDistribution Company (IKEDC) of abdicatingtheir responsibility to provide power for them.The company did not respond to inquiries for the story.

In December 2011, the Lagos state government through the commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Taofiq Tijani announced an initiative to ease power challenge in Shomolu by building a dedicated independent power plant for her facilities in the area to reduce pressure on the national grid and free up power for the community.

Nearly five years after the pronouncement, the project is yet to commence. Highly placed sources at the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Lagos StateElectricity Board who craved anonymity on the basis of their not been mandated to speak on on-going plans, said the government was now having a global view of the problem and their intervention is limited to critical and vulnerable segments of the state.

Olawale Oluwo, commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources while launching the “Light up Lagos” initiative at Seme last month, said “while the state cannot provide power for the citizens,through “Light up Lagos,” we aim to connect communities hitherto unconnected to the national grid as discos are not motivated to make critical investments in infrastructure in those areas.”

While businesses around Shomolu await respite, it continues to be a medley of ear-splitting sound from generating sets turning the atmosphere to a giant bedlam.

Meanwhile experts say generating sets constitutes serious hazards both to the environment and human health.

“Exposure to diesel exhaust has been linked to lung cancer in occupational settings and in Nigeria the impact is seen in the rising numbers of nonsmokers less than 60 years old.” StatedNiyi Awofeso, health and environment expert, in a study published by the American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine.

But Shomolu, with a heaving cluster of residential and businesses have learnt to live with the hazards.

Aina Adegbenro, resident at Akeju street said: “We are now used to the noise, my infant child only have trouble sleeping when everywhere is quiet.”