The four-month power outage in northern Nigeria has cost many their livelihoods and brought misery to breadwinners trying to make ends meet so they can put food on their tables and care for their families.
But one section of the population is making a fortune – generator repairers are making big bucks.
Babagana Alhaji, a generator repairer from Damboa Local Government Area, said his business was booming. “I can’t get what I am getting now if there is electricity because no one needs a generator when there is power. The outage has been good for me. I repair more than 25 generators a day and make 5,000 naira and more sometimes,” he said.
Mohammed Modu Umar, also a generator repairer, said: “When the power is working, hardly anyone needs my services. I repair fewer than five generators a day when there is electricity.”
He said repairing generators was what he relied on to put food on his table. He said he no longer went to the market to look for business. Since the power outage people had been bringing their generators to his house for repairs.
Umar said hardly anyone had a generator before the power outage in Damboa. “But now almost everyone has a generator because of the outage has lasted for so long.”
Malam Amsami Kafa, a resident of Damboa, said the power outage started in November last year.
Residents said members of Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS) – also known as Boko Haram – had destroyed a nearby electricity tower and had not allowed anyone to repair it.
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