Residents in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital have lamented the scourge of power outage and epileptic electricity supply to them, saying the effect is hampering almost all spheres of their daily activities.
The problem, according to the consumers, is seriously affecting business growth and economic drive.
Those who shared their views and experiences with BusinessDay expressed concern and urged government at all levels and stakeholders concerned to rise to the challenges so as to prevent businesses from collapsing and crippling the economy.
Sarat Imam, a resident of Tanke area Ilorin said that they have being suffering from lack of electricity supply for weeks.
“The situation is very bad. We don’t have light for the past two weeks. Even when they used to give us, it doesn’t last more than two hours in a day and it may still be low voltage,” Imam said.
“Some of my electrical appliances like freezer and rice cooker are affected epileptic power supply.
“Government and Power Holding Company (PHCN), should do something urgent because the situation is affecting a lots of things in our daily engagements.”
Also speaking, Afusat Oladimeji, a soft drinks seller at Saint. Anthony Offa Road Ilorin prayed that, “only God will help us, as there is no regular power supply; we record poor sales. People prefer chilled soft drinks and in spite buying iced water to freeze the mineral, sales is not like before.
“The money we use for ice blocks has reduced our profits. we are now buying ice blocks of about N500 to cool the drinks and we may still not make sales, that is affecting our profit.
“I call for regularly power supply, and govt should intervene in solving the problem NEPA may have so as to improve market stance boost the economy of our country.”
Read also: Frequent grid collapse symptoms of troubled power sector
In his submission, Damilare Olalekan, a dry cleaner at Post Office Ilorin, explained that when there is no light, there is no work, adding that the situation hinders his business growth.
“Many of our work now are taken to other areas to execute and satisfy our customers. When there is light we quickly use it before they take it off,” he said.
“We used to have light from morning till evening but now, they just bring it anytime and restore it. Like yesterday, they brought it around 5:30 pm and we have to wait till 9pm it lasted for us to get some works done.
“We use generator at times but as things are hard, there is not enough profit again and the work is more stressful. We normally do laundry for N300 before but now, it costs N400. Things for laundry are expensive, including starch. We are just managing to survive, so my appeal is for the government to do the needful by addressing the problem once and for all.”
Meanwhile, Usman Olaitan, a generator repairer at Taiwo Road said the situation has brought blessings to his business.
Olaitan thanked God for the development, saying it increases the business patronage. He noted that they used to have plenty of work only when the ambient temperature rises, but the situation has changed for good as people use generator more now and the machines breakdown sooner.
“Our market sometime increases when there is heat, you know water is used to generate light so, during heat season, mega watts produced used to be minimal so people will encounter poor electricity supply and would be forced to use generator.
“Because of the rains this season there should be regular power supply, but that is not the case. There is no power and we are so occupied. Ideally, generator is meant for use for a short period of time but many people use it for the whole day and even days for businesses and that leads to quick spoilage. Stakeholders in that sector are urged to assist us.”
