Now look at
it this way, Nigerian Government is calling foreign companies to come and
invest in Nigeria, there is no electricity, no security, no good road, no good
hospital, kidnapping everywhere in the country and you think all this foreign
investors are not seeing it.
Balogun Shakirat woke up with a start at 3am and put on the
light in her workshop in a crowded working class district of Nigeria's
commercial capital, Lagos.
In the following three hours, she was able to sew shirts,
trousers and a jacket. Then the electricity supply went off again.
No light the whole day today,” she complained.
Instead she stitched the hems of traditional Yoruba hats with a
needle at her overheated single-storey house and waited for night to fall.
“NEPA brings light at night these days,” said Shakirat,
referring to the National Electric Power Authority, or, as it's often been
called, “Never Expect Power Always”.
The electricity provider hasn't existed for years under the name
NEPA, but it's still talked about like a person, its presence or absence
dictating the rhythm of Nigerian life.
Poor supply
Even at the best of times Nigeria, which is home to more than
170 million people, ranks among the lowest countries in the world for energy
consumption at just 155 kilowatt hours per person.
But these are not the best of times: production has wavered for
the last few months between 1 500 to 4 000 megawatts.
In comparison, South Africa, which has three times fewer people,
capacity is more than 10 times greater at 45 000 MW.
Between 8 000 and 9 000 MW is the bare minimum considered
necessary for Lagos' economy to function.
But the megacity only gets about 10 percent of what it needs,
leaving its 20 million or so inhabitants to their own devices.
The richest use top-of-the-range inverters and huge
diesel-powered generators to guarantee as much uninterrupted supply as
possible.
The less well-off have smaller generators that are used
sparingly because of the rising cost of fuel; the poorest are stuck with
kerosene lamps.
Pipeline attacks
In Obalende, Shakirat said the power situation is affecting her
business.
“Before I could make 30 000 naira a week ($95). Now it's 10 000
because of NEPA. It's since April. We don't know why,” she said.
In fact, April was when the Niger Delta Avengers group conducted
its first major attacks in the creeks and swamps of Nigeria's oil-producing
south.
The rebels have since regularly blown up energy infrastructure
and promised to bring Nigeria to its knees as long as its demands are not met.
On Monday, Shell was forced to shut down the Trans Niger
Pipeline, which feeds the Afam VI electricity power station in Rivers state.
As yet, none of the alphabet soup of armed groups sabotaging the
region's oil and gas infrastructure has claimed responsibility for the attack.
But last week, the NDA said it had blown up the key Bonny
pipeline, breaking a ceasefire it had declared a month before.
Mounting debts
Dallas Peavey, the executive director of Egbin Power, the
biggest electricity power station in Nigeria, has blamed government policy for
the situation and had a stark warning for the future.
“It's going to be dark in Nigeria soon,” he was quoted as saying
in a recent newspaper interview.
New players took advantage of the liberalisation of the power
sector in 2013 and invested in Nigeria, which because of its huge need for
electricity, was seen as an eldorado.
But three years later, oil prices have plummeted on the world
market, hitting Nigeria hard given that crude export sales account for some 70
percent of government revenue.
Foreign exchange is in short supply, the economy in recession
and the turbines of Egbin are now running at only 30 percent capacity because
of the attacks in the delta.
“We are owed over 86 billion naira by the federal government. We
have been producing but we haven't been paid for almost six months,” said
Peavey.
Energy minister Babatunde Fashola, the former governor of Lagos
state, tried to reassure investors earlier this week at a major industry
conference at Lagos' plushest hotel.
“Debts will be paid. Leaders promote hope. Leaders do not create
panic,” he thundered.
Not long afterwards there was a power cut in the huge conference
hall.
Dolapo Oni, energy consultant at the Ecobank Group, said Nigeria
needs an off-grid solution such as solar to tackle the energy deficit.
“The government signed a 1.1 MW solar power plan but it will
come in three, four years,” he said.
But to pay off its debts, the government “needs to collect
revenues, and to implement sanction for electricity thefts”.
“The gas price is not economic for producers, they can't get
return on their investments, so the government needs to increase the
electricity tariffs... But politically it's an issue.”
Back in Obalende, Abiodun Asolo is soldering a football
goal-post. The noise of his
generator is deafening.
It's been running for 12 hours straight, costing him at least 1
500 naira a day.
“If there's no light, I still have to pay NEPA and also fuel.
This is not fair,” he said.
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