{"id":43,"date":"2014-02-17T13:10:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T12:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=43"},"modified":"2016-10-27T16:39:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T15:39:23","slug":"black-out-excitement-power-problems-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/02\/17\/black-out-excitement-power-problems-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackout excitement: Power problems in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"On
On the way to LBS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daily life in Lagos \u2013 and for that matter, I guess in most of Nigeria and Africa \u2013 offers certain small excitements. One of them is the blackout excitement<\/b>: some time(s) during the day, the light and\/or the power goes off. Nobody gets disturbed; they just go about their business. There are generators<\/b> both at school and at home, which means that typically the blackout lasts just a few minutes. There was no light when I woke up yesterday before sunrise. This time it was the generator that was damaged.<\/b>\u00a0 I still managed to take a shower and get dressed with the assistance of some far away street lighting that came through the window, and the little light my tablet projected. This is just a small example of power problems in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Power supply is a critical obstacle<\/b> to the economic development of the country. So as to ensure a regular supply, companies need to install their own generators. I’ve read that the operating cost of these generators is six times the tariff per kilowatt hour on the public grid, adding an extra 40% to the cost of doing business. I don’t know how accurate these estimates are, but in any case they indicate a substantial extra cost<\/b>!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the situation seems to be changing for the good<\/b>:<\/p>\n