Blackout: How Nigerians’re beating woeful power supply with solar

Nigeria’s worsening electricity crisis and soaring fuel prices are driving households, businesses and even government institutions to embrace Solar energy, fuelling a renewable energy boom despite concerns over affordability, safety and the nation’s struggling power grid. LADESOPE LADELOKUN reports

Worried by the erratic supply of electricity in his Arogun community in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, Ramon Salau, a barber, was still unsure when power supply would be restored after two weeks of blackout.


But for his adoption of solar energy, he would have closed shop owing to the huge financial burden of buying petrol at over N1,000 per litre and the resistance from customers that usually accompanies an adjustment, however little, in prices charged for services rendered.

He said: “When petrol was still selling for about N700, I was spending around N20,000 every week on fuel. In a month, that’s about N80,000. How much do I really make? What’s my gain if I spend that much on fuel?People are not willing to pay more than N1,000 per haircut. Even now, we are buying fuel at N1,350 per litre. There is no way I would still be in business if I had not turned to solar.

By now, with petrol at N1350 per litre, I would be spending nothing less than N30,000 to N35,000 weekly on fuel. That’s not sustainable. Although I paid N200,000 for the solar alternative I started using a year ago, it has saved me a lot of headache.

I do not have to worry about buying fuel or raising my charges. Yet, I make more profit. “Initially, the solar alternative I bought for N178,000 could only provide light at night and charge one phone. I used to charge my clippers somewhere else.

The only advantage was that I was paying N2,700 every week. That was the payment plan. But the one I bought for N200,000, like I said, serves me well. I charge phones, my clippers, and it still gives me light.

I dumped that of N178,000, even when I had N50,000 left to settle, but no one would ask me since I stopped using it.”

Nigeria’s power crisis

Necessity, as the saying goes, is the mother of invention. Like Salau, many Nigerians are seeking alternatives to the supply of electricity following what is deemed the astronomical rise in the price of petrol from N197 in 2023 to over N1,350 in 2026 and the perennial short supply from the national grid.

From the brown roofs of Apete, Ibadan, Oyo State to the mansions of Asokoro in Abuja to even Aso Villa, solar installations, Sunday Telegraph gathered, are reducing the dependence on the national electricity grid. Just on Thursday this week, the Zamfara State Government exited the National Grid.

From the brown roofs of Apete, Ibadan, Oyo State to the mansions of Asokoro in Abuja to even Aso Villa, solar installations, Sunday Telegraph gathered, are reducing the dependence on the national electricity grid. Just on Thursday this week, the Zamfara State Government exited the National Grid.

That is just few months after the Aso Rock announced its plans to go full Solar. For decades, despite attempts by successive governments to solve the power question, lamentations about epileptic power supply still linger.

This is even as affordable and constant electricity supply still remains a luxury for millions of households in Nigeria despite tariff hikes aimed at addressing the liquidity crisis in the power sector. According to the World Bank, unreliable electricity costs Nigeria about $29 billion annually.

“Businesses in Nigeria lose about $29billion annually because of unreliable electricity. Nigerian utilities get paid for only a half of electricity they receive. “For every N10 worth of electricity received by DisCos (distribution companies), about N2.60 is lost in poor distribution infrastructure and through power theft and another N3.40 is not being paid for by customers,” the bank added.

Energy, manufacturers claim, now accounts for as much as 30 to 35 per cent of production costs; something experts argue is more than double the cost in countries with stable electricity systems.

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