Nigeria suffers widespread blackouts after electricity grid fails

Nigeria's national electricity grid collapsed on Monday leaving many parts of the country without power, electricity distribution companies said.

The grid has collapsed at least four times this year, which authorities blame on technical problems. Last month workers from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) went on strike and temporarily shut the grid.

Electricity distribution firms, known as Discos, said the outage happened earlier on Monday and they were working with TCN to restore supplies. They did not state the cause of the outage.

Nigeria has installed capacity of 12,500 megawatts but produces about a quarter of that, leaving many Nigerians and businesses reliant on diesel-powered generators. Diesel prices have soared since the start of the year.

The nation's sclerotic power grid, and its precarious energy supply, are often cited by businesses as a key issue hindering growth in Africa's most populous country.

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

Reuters 

Related stories: Nigeria runs on generators and nine hours of power a day

Nigerian cities in darkness as electricity grid collapses again

 

 

Nigeria's fuel subsidies surpassed $1 billion in August as it supplied more petrol

The cost of Nigeria's fuel subsidies rose to 525.714 billion naira ($1.22 billion) in August, bringing the total spent this year to 2.568 trillion naira, according to figures submitted to the government by state oil company NNPC.

The ballooning costs of keeping petrol prices low in Africa's most populous nation are straining the budget and draining revenue from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC).

In April, Nigeria's parliament approved a 4-trillion-naira petrol subsidy for this year after the government in January reversed a pledge to end its subsidies to avert protests in the run-up to presidential elections in February 2023.

NNPC has not submitted any money to the federal government this year due largely to subsidy costs. August's bill compared with 448.782 billion naira in July, according to a document NNPC submitted on Friday to the Federation Account Allocation Committee.

Part of the increased cost was down to a bigger daily supply of petrol, which rose to 71.8 million litres, up nearly 10% from July, according to information submitted at the same meeting by regulator Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.

Oil production in August averaged 1.18 million barrels per day, well below the nation's OPEC quota of 1.8 million bpd, due in large part to theft from pipelines that has curtailed production.

By Camillus Eboh

Reuters

Nigeria to Allow Savers to Dip Into Pension Funds for Mortgages

Nigeria enacted regulations allowing citizens to tap into their pension contributions to fund mortgages, as it looks for ways to help more people buy homes.

The National Pension Commission “approved the issuance and immediate implementation” of guidelines for retirement savings account holders to use a portion of their balance to pay for residential housing loans, it said in an emailed statement.

A pension holder must pay into the fund for at least five years to qualify, and can withdraw a maximum of 25% of the savings, it said.

Africa’s most populous nation, with more than 200 million people, Nigeria is trying to turn more of its citizens into homeowners. A report published by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2019 found the nation had a deficit of about 20 million housing units, which would require 21 trillion naira ($48.2 billion) to finance.
Citizens have faced challenges accessing property finance as most funds available are short-term whereas mortgages require payments over a long period of time.

By Emele Onu

Bloomberg

Gunmen kill 14 villagers in northcentral Nigeria

Gunmen attacked two communities in Nigeria’s north-central region, killing 14 people and injuring many others, authorities said Thursday.

The attackers stormed the communities in Logo council area of Benue state Wednesday night, opening “unprovoked” fire on residents, said Paul Hemba, the state’s top security official.

Police in Benue confirmed the attack. The assailants shot 12 people to death in one community then moved on to another where they killed two more villagers, Hemba said. He said 15 people were “seriously injured.”

He identified the attackers as “Fulani herdsmen,” a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up in Nigeria’s conflict between host communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.

In Nigeria’s middle belt and central regions, deadly clashes between local communities and herdsmen continue in a cycle of violence that has defied government measures, although security forces have recently announced some arrests and seizure of arms.

A similar attack in another part of Benue targeted a convoy of soldiers of the Nigerian army, but they were able to repel the assailants, Hemba said.

Many of the attacks in rural areas are similar. Motorcycle-riding gunmen often arrive in the hundreds in areas where Nigeria’s security forces are outnumbered and outgunned.


Authorities have in the past admitted that the inadequate number of security personnel in many of the affected areas is one of the major reasons the attacks have continued.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came into office in 2015 on a wave of goodwill after promising to end the nation’s protracted security crisis, leaves office in 2023. Those security challenges are back on the front burner as political campaigns for next year’s election begin.

By Chinedu Asadu

Toronto Star

 Related story: Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Nigeria's military warns residents of bombings targeting bandits

Nigeria's military is urging people in three northwestern states to leave forested areas ahead of a bombing campaign targeting bandits and terrorists, according to local broadcast stations and a military official.

An advertisement running on local television and radio stations warned people in Zamfara, Katsina and the Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna state to leave the forests in advance of a "heavy bombardment."

Murtala Alhasan Umaru, general manager at Zamfara state TV and radio, showed the advertisement to Reuters and said the military asked them to play it. There are versions in local pidgin English, Hausa, Kanuri and Fulani.

A military official reached by phone confirmed the advertisement's authenticity but declined to share his name or any further information.

Armed gangs of men, known locally as bandits, have killed and kidnapped hundreds across northwest Nigeria over the past two years, typically operating from remote forests. The country's thinly stretched armed forces have struggled to secure the large, remote regions.

The advertisement said the bombardment would "protect the life and property of Nigerians."

One man in Zamfara state, Abdullahi Abubakar, said he had heard the broadcast on the radio and had seen military fighter jets flying overhead.

Two other residents in Zamfara, one in Gumi and the other in Shinkafi, said there had been daily bombings since Saturday morning. The two asked Reuters not to identify them by name.

By Hamza Ibrahim 

Reuters

Related story: Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?