Nigerians face the collapse of their electricity grid
A general view of an electricity distribution plant running out of power following the collapse of the national grid leading to blackout in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, on March 15, 2022. AFP - PIUS UTOMI EKPEI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Since the start of the week, Nigeria has been facing an almost complete collapse of its national electricity grid.
A catastrophic situation in a context marked by the explosion of fuel prices used to power generators, now the only source of energy.
Because Nigeria may be the largest crude oil producer in Africa, the country imports almost all of its refined fuel.
Gasoline prices – massively subsidized – remain stable, but the price of diesel has soared.
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With our correspondent in Lagos,
Liza Fabbian
Everything seems almost normal in this Lagos snack.
The lights are on and the air conditioning is working.
But at what cost?
Over the past two weeks, the price of the diesel that powers the facility's generator has nearly tripled.
“
Basically, diesel costs around 40 cents a litre.
But all of a sudden, it started to cost 80 cents.
And there it went to almost 1.60 euro.
»
Henry is the accountant for this snack.
He describes the daily hell to stock up on energy.
“
When there is no electricity in my office, we switch to the diesel generator.
When there are no more, we use batteries.
At home too, I run my generator every day, because I have a baby who can't stand this heat.
But with the gas shortage lately, it's been hell.
Once I went out at
7am to get fuel and didn't come back until 5pm at
night.
»
Over the past two weeks, the workload of Anas Musa Muhammed's sewing workshop has tripled.
Due to a lack of electricity, this little notable has to run his generators day and night.
“
It started to deteriorate at the beginning of the year.
Sometimes we had five minutes of electricity a day, not more.
Sometimes whole weeks without light at all.
The only solution is to use the generators, there is no alternative.
We're not going to sit here doing nothing.
Before, we could hold a whole working day with 10 euros of gasoline for our two generators.
Today, I spend more like 32.33 euros and the generators are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
”
It is a system which, structurally, is problematic and which cannot get out of these problems.
So sometimes, all it takes is one imponderable for the whole system to go wrong and cause a blackout.
Philippe Sébille Lopes, director of the Geopolia firm and specialist in energy geopolitics issues
Victor Mauriat
In the popular and densely populated district of Obalende, many are struggling to feed themselves.
Even water prices have risen dramatically, according to Olaitan Olokowo, the president of the homeowners' association in this poor neighborhood.
“
I have to lend my generator to operate the pump that draws water from the well.
Before, this water was traded for 40 cents for 12 cans.
Today it is 2 euros.
»
A crisis that weighs on the poorest households, worries Olaitan Olokowo.
“
The problems started at the end of December,
” he recalls.
It is difficult for community leaders to see more and more people begging.
It's very sad.
If you come here at night, around midnight, 1
a.m., you will see people sleeping in their cars or sleeping on the streets, trying to find some fresh air.
»
In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, the Nigerian Minister of Finance confirmed this weekend the total elimination of subsidies on electricity, whose tariffs increased slightly in February.
On Wednesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari publicly apologized
for the hardships Nigerians are currently facing.
It is something structural.
Power cuts have always been very frequent in Nigeria.
On average, a household or business faces about 30 outages per month.
The blackouts are rather linked to the inability of the network to meet the high demand for electricity from consumers...
Hugo Le Picard, researcher at IFRI on the development of electricity systems in Africa
Charlotte Cosset
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