Frozen food sellers lament blackout in Bauchi

Frozen food sellers in Bauchi are struggling to stay afloat due to a prolonged power outage that paralysed businesses in the area.

Supreme News reports that Bauchi and other parts of northern Nigeria have been thrown into days of darkness following vandalism of the power transmission lines.

However, the restoration of light in part of Bauchi was a short-lived sequel to the recent collapse of the national grid on Tuesday.

A cross section of the traders, who spoke to newsmen on Tuesday, said the perennial power outage crippled their businesses and exposed them to losses.

Mrs Grace Waziri, a frozen food seller, decried the situation, saying the trend negatively affected her business and exposed her to losses.

Waziri said that she could not preserve beef, fishery and poultry products due to the exorbitant pump price.

Ms Amina Abubakar, who echoed similar concern, said that a large quantity of iced fish spoiled due to power outage in the area.

Abubakar said the trend had forced prices of frozen foods down, adding that most traders were begging customers to buy their products to guard against losses.

On her part, Mrs. Naomi Luka urged the Federal Government to adopt proactive measures to address the problem and enhance power supply to the country.

Luka said that she sold iced fish to buyers at cheaper prices to minimise losses by selling her fish to roasters after three days of power outage.

“We are being faced with significant financial losses due to spoiled goods,” the situation

“Power outages reduce sales, affecting revenue and the situation affects the overall economy, undermining small businesses” she said.

She also urged the government to implement alternative energy solutions to support businesses affected by power outages.

Meanwhile, Friday Adakole-Elijah, Head of Corporate Communications, Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED), attributed the recent blackout in its franchise to the collapse of the national grid on Tuesday.

“The current outage being experienced within our franchise states is a result of a loss of power supply from the national grid.

“The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred this afternoon at about1352 hours of today, Tuesday, 5th November 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.”.

While commending electricity consumers for their support, Adakole-Elijah assured that the company would restore power supply as soon as the grid supply returned to normalcy.