Nigerians left weeks without power after grid issues

The BBC contacted the Eko Electricity Distribution Company which provides electricity to some parts of Lagos to ask about Ms Emeneka’s case, but received no reply.

The problems with the country’s grid are endemic and affect huge numbers in one of Africa’s biggest economies.

Officials have confirmed eight instances of nationwide power outages this year alone.

“The truth of the matter is, we have old infrastructure. We have a national grid that is more than 50 years old. The towers are falling and the substation transformers are old,” Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu said.

“We’ve been trying to revamp this and change them but they cannot all be changed overnight.”

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, which is responsible for delivering power, said the latest widespread outages were caused by vandalism on a major transmission line.

Officials said they were working hard to restore energy to households and businesses, with power recently returning to seven of the affected states after a nine-day blackout.

In Lagos, pockets of the city and its suburbs on Friday remained in the dark.

Many who cannot afford the over 500% increase in fuel prices to run their generators have to rely on their hand fans to combat the heat.

Last April, authorities hiked electricity tariffs by over 300% with consumers who receive more than 20 hours of power supply a day, paying more. The government said the electricity subsidies it paid were depleting the country’s resources.

Some energy experts have blamed the government for failing to invest in improving the infrastructure.

Analyst Oti Ikomi agreed that vandalism was responsible for some recent outages but warned the problems would persist without more investment.

“Unfortunately, the technical side, the enhancement of all the required infrastructure has slowed down. It needs commitment,” he told the BBC.

Nigeria’s northern states have been the worst hit by the outages.

Businesses like frozen-food vendors lost thousands of dollars discarding rotten food including frozen fish, chicken and turkey.

The advice from experts for small businesses that want to keep going is to install solar panels and inverters as a backup for grid collapses but the cost is prohibitive for many.