Business owners in Bauchi, Gombe, and Jigawa are grappling with significant losses following a prolonged blackout caused by the vandalism of a key power transmission line in northern Nigeria. The week-long outage has crippled essential services like water supply, healthcare, street lighting, and sanitation, with local industries hit particularly hard.
Among those most affected are shop owners, millers, and artisans, who described the situation as “pathetic” in a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The disruption has thrown the spotlight on the national grid’s frequent collapses and the urgent need for alternative energy sources.
In Gombe, rice millers have been struggling to keep their operations running amid the erratic power supply. Musa Arab, a miller at the Nassarawo Industrial Layout, lamented that the outages had brought his mill to a standstill. “We rely on electricity from the grid to process paddy. With the blackout, our machines can’t run, and fuel prices are too high to use generators,” he explained. The power crisis, he said, has severely reduced rice production, posing a serious threat to food security.
Arab employs over 20 workers and noted that the area hosts about 100 mini rice mills, leaving many without work for over 10 days. He called on the government to take tougher action against those responsible for the recurring grid collapses. “Some people must be benefiting from this mess, and the government needs to clamp down on them.”
Yusuf Ibrahim, another rice miller, warned that the power outage could further drive up inflation as dwindling supplies of local rice push prices higher. Some millers, he said, had already increased their fees to cover diesel costs, further straining the market.
A check at the Gombe Main Market revealed that the price of a 100-kilogram bag of rice had surged to between N120,000 and N160,000, up from N110,000 to N150,000 before the blackout. Rice dealer Usman Sani attributed the price hike to reduced supplies, despite a recent harvest. “Prices had started to drop, but the blackout reversed that trend,” he said.
In Bauchi, business owners like Ugochukwu Daniel, a bartender, voiced frustration over the erratic power supply, which he said hampers Nigeria’s path to economic growth. “I spend a lot on fuel just to power my refrigerators and lights. Without stable electricity, businesses can’t thrive,” Daniel lamented. He pointed out that consistent power is not just a necessity for business but essential for everyday life.
Similarly, Samuel Adamu, a local dry cleaner, said the persistent power cuts had forced him to switch to charcoal for ironing clothes, despite the steep increase in its cost. “Charcoal prices jumped from N5,000 to N15,000, but we have no choice,” he said. To cut costs, Adamu now washes clothes himself and hires someone else to handle the ironing, charging N300 per set, up from N150 before the outage.
Adamu also called for the development of renewable energy solutions to boost Nigeria’s power supply, while urging security forces to intensify their efforts to protect electrical infrastructure from vandalism.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Adamu, Chairman of the Jigawa State House Assembly Committee on Power and Energy, highlighted the recent passage of the Jigawa Electricity Law 2024. The law aims to improve power generation and distribution within the state and is part of the larger devolution of power to states, following the 5th Amendment to the Constitution.
“The new law allows Jigawa to establish its own Electricity Commission, which will regulate the local power market,” Adamu explained. He emphasized that the law would encourage investment in the energy sector, ensure the installation of prepaid meters, and address issues such as vandalism. “We need reliable, affordable, and sustainable power, especially in rural areas where development is heavily dependent on electricity.”
Adamu added that the law would also shift the responsibility of paying for repairs to damaged transformers away from communities, which currently bear the cost in the event of breakdowns. “We pay Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) for power, yet when something goes wrong, it’s the communities that are forced to cover the repairs. This law will change that.”
