Oluwaseun Akanni is a 23-year-old self-employed man in Ekiti state. His barbing salon, located along NTA Road in the capital Ado-Ekiti just by the ever busy satellite campus of the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, is usually crowded with waiting customers. This should have been a source of elation for Seun, but he is sad.

Speaking with Nigerian Telegraph, Seun lamented about the high cost of operation brought about by the poor state of electricity supply within the state.

“It is not easy at all running this business in this place. I spend almost N1,500 on fuel everyday running this generator for my business,” Seun said.

“The light in Ado Ekiti is very bad; it is not helping my business at all. There is one woman in that shopping complex (points to a shopping complex just across the road and directly opposite his store) that sells frozen food. She has closed shop.”

Seun’s plight is not peculiar. Our reporter spoke to Chisom Azubuike who runs a supermarket along the popular Adebayo Road in the capital — he also complained about the electricity situation in the town.

“I cannot guarantee cold drinks in my store every time. I only run my generator in the night to put on light so my customers can see what I am selling,” Chisom explained.

“The government should do something about it. This state is small and business is not that big here compared to Lagos; so we are really going through a tough time here.”

Small businesses are not the only ones groaning under the heavy burden of poor electricity in the state. A popular hotelier, who opted to remain anonymous, said he puts on his generating set at 7 pm every evening and switches it off at 7 am in the morning and that for the past one week he has maintained this routine.

“Imagine that I have to run diesel for 12 hours everyday since last week for the full hotel, and the price of diesel is still N160. I do not own a filling station… It is very bad,” he lamented.

“Many hotels in this place just put theirs on for only 5 hours in the night and I do not blame them. The cost of operation is too high, and if we increase the accommodation, people will run and we might have to shut down. My brother we are just surviving here.”

Nigerian Telegraph‘s investigations revealed that the most affected areas in the state are: NTA Road, Ajilosun, Oke Yimi, Bank Road, Okesha and Ijigbo.

The Nigerian Telegraph spoke with the Special Adviser to the State government on Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Kayode Jegede, who said that the government was working towards resolving the situation.

“We have always had the will to resolve this situation just that we were hampered by the legal framework that governs the sector. However, that framework has changed a bit from the federal level, with the NERC now in place, and we are now doing a lot of things to that effect,” Jegede said.

“We also know that everything we do must be linked to the federal level, as any state that does anything in isolation will be left with a white elephant project as some states have found out.

“What we decided to do is to create an energy master plan, which we kicked off two months ago. What we are doing with the project is to find out our current need and we have engaged the services of a consultant company run by Dr. Lanre Babalola, who happens to be a former minister for power and is very knowledgeable in that area.”

According to Jegede, the exercise involves all the ministries of the government in the state.

“For example we can look at what the ministry of trade is trying to do. If they have industrial clusters in their plans, we would put the power stations near the clusters so that those industries would be served as priority. So, this is a six-month exercise that we want to conclude before the end of the year,” the official revealed.

“Already, we have several proposals from IPP’s; some are solar and some are gas based, and we will evaluate all these proposals and chose whichever one serves us best.”

The state is trying to set up an independent power project.
The state is trying to set up an independent power project.
He also said that the state governor, Kayode Fayemi, was working hard towards resolving the issue.

“The governor also does a lot to influence what is happening at the federal level, because he is on the board of the NIPP,” he said.

Nigerian Telegraph took a trip to the office of the Ekiti State Electricity Board, located along Fajuyi road in Ado Ekiti.

Our efforts to speak with the chairman proved abortive as he was in a meeting and referred this reporter to his Public Relations Officer, Adumasa Ojo, who reiterated that the state has very limited control over the amount of power that is being distributed in the state.

He, however, pointed out that there are plans within the state to improve the power within the state.

Ojo insisted that he would schedule an appointment with the chairman and the manager of the board, but as at the time of filing this report the meeting was yet to be arranged.

At the Ado-Ekiti branch office of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), there was no staff on site, and the security official present at the premises gave this reporter the phone number of the Manager of the Ado Ekiti branch, one Mr. Ademola.

He, however, stressed that the Ibadan Distribution Company was responsible for the amount of power being distributed to the state, and that the Chairman of the Commission, Sam Amadi, was working on ways to ensure that electricity users received adequate supply.

Despite the optimistic outlook from the government and regulators, the worry remains strong among residents of the state.

Babatope Adeshina, who owns a music store at Oke Bisi market in Ado Ekiti, is afraid of the future if the high cost of operation forces him out of business.

“I want to government to act fast about this light situation, because if people are driven out of businesses they would have to survive and would look for alternative means which could be crime,” he stated.


Source: http://telegraphng.com/2013/07/ekiti-residents-cry-for-light/

Sourcehttp://telegraphng.com/2013/07/ekiti-residents-cry-for-light/

Electricity?

yes na