Power Outage Paralyses Business In Badagry

Power outage in the Badagry area of Lagos State in the past two weeks has paralysed economic activities in the ancient town.

Tide reports that the blackout is also causing a lot of hardships for residents who now rely on generators in their homes with the attendant health implications.

Some residents, who spoke with The Tide, said they were finding it difficult to cope with the situation and the cost of running their generators.

The Manager of ABISEC Computers, Mr Kayode Ogungbe said it had become difficult and expensive to run his business as he had to source for diesel to power his generator.

“In the past two weeks, we put on our generators for most part of the day to enable us to work and this is telling on our purse.

“It has reduced the profit we were making when we had electricity, as we now spend so much money on buying diesel,’’ Ogungbe said. Mrs Aje Jacob, who operates a pepper grinding machine near the Badagry Town Hall, also complained of difficulty in running her business.

“Most times now, I use petrol because there is no light to power my machine. The most painful aspect of it is that our customers are not ready to pay for the extra cost,” she said.

That  blackout has also affected homes as most residents rely on generators to power their fans during the night. Mr Hunsu Joseph, who lives in the Ansar-udeen area of Badagry, said electricity had become a luxury for the people.

“In my area, it has been weeks now without power supply and it has not been easy for us to enjoy the good  things of life,” he said.

However, when contacted, the PHCN Branch Manager in Badagry, Mr Olaniyan Olabode, said the blackout was due to the upgrade of facilities in Agbara.

He added that the residents had no reason to complain, as PHCN made a prior announcement that the upgrade would affect electricity supply and appealed to the residents to make sacrifice to enjoy later.