Nigeria’s Energy Crisis Cripples SMEs

Nigeria’s current energy crisis has taken a negative toll on the activities of Small Medium Enterprises(SMEs) that are currently on life support.

Indeed, the majority of the SMEs who spoke to Borderless News in separate interviews expressed frustration at the worsening state of the country’s energy supply index figure.

A Business Center operator at the Ogba, Mr.Kingsley Adinidu, said the high cost of diesel and petrol has wiped off his profit margin by more than 45%.

He lamented that he has been on the generator for the past one week because the power supply situation has gone from bad to worse.
‘‘I operate my generator from 9 am to 6 pm every day (Monday to Friday). No SME can survive under this harsh operating environment. I may consider shutting down the business because it is no longer profitable.

Another operator in the Somolu area who specializes in printing said he could no longer bear the high cost of diesel which has gone up by more than 150 percent from N250 per liter to about N650 per liter.

He said he and some of his colleagues are considering working as a cluster group when they use a single generator to run their jobs, instead of everybody running an individual generator.

The frustration of the SMEs may not be unconnected with the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine which has seen oil price attain an all-time high of $120 per barrel.

This was even as the two electricity grid collapse in 24 hours compounded the challenges of SMEs. The collapse has thrown major parts of the country into darkness.

The two systems collapsed on Monday and Tuesday respectively at 10.40 am on Monday and 5:00 pm on Tuesday leading to outages across the Discos network.

Responding to the outage, Eko Electricity Distribution Company(EKEDC) in a notice on its verified Twitter handle said it regrets to inform of a total system collapse on the national grid leading to outages on its network.

‘‘We are closely monitoring the situation with our TCN partners to determine the cause and a timeline for resolution. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience as we will keep you posted on the situation.

The grid collapse has however led to a drop of 600MW of electricity generation at Africa’s largest power plant in Egbin, Lagos.
Also, Kaduna Electricity, on Monday, while confirming the system collapse, assured its customers that power would soon be restored.
“We regret to inform you that the power outage being experienced in our franchise states is due to system collapse of the national grid which occurred at about 10:40 am,” the firm said, offering apologies for any inconvenience.”
In its message to customers, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc said that the system collapse affected supply in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and the Imo States.

The notice signed by EEDC Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Ezeh, readS, “The Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc (EEDC) wishes to inform her esteemed customers in the South East of a general system collapse which occurred this morning, Monday, March 14, 2022, at 10:40 am.

“This is the reason for the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network.

“Consequently, all our outgoing feeders are out and supply to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and the Imo States are affected by this development’’.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) had last week notified consumers of electricity that the current load shedding being experienced nationwide is as a result of very low power generation by the Generation Companies (GENCOs) for TCN to wheel through the transmission grid to distribution companies nationwide.