{"id":53872,"date":"2025-12-11T09:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/?p=53872"},"modified":"2025-12-11T09:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:37:18","slug":"renewables-rise-engine-generator-mechanics-and-vendors-must-adapt-to-remain-competitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/renewables-rise-engine-generator-mechanics-and-vendors-must-adapt-to-remain-competitive\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewables Rise: Engine Generator Mechanics and Vendors Must Adapt"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many decades, the business of repairing engine generators has been a main source of livelihood for hundreds of thousands of young men and women in Nigeria. Nigeria, a country with a population of over 200 million, has more than half of its population struggling to enjoy a constant power supply due to many factors, including institutional corruption, underinvestment in new generation infrastructure, over-reliance on fossil fuels, and the vandalization of power infrastructure by non-state actors, which has pushed millions to rely on backup power solutions such as engine generators.<\/p>\n

Low patronage after fuel subsidy removal \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adamu Abdullahi, 30, an engine generator mechanic, was living a relatively good life with his wife and two children five years ago when the business was booming due to high demand from the public and business owners.<\/p>\n

“I have been in this business for 11 years now,” he said. “But the past three years have been extremely tough for us because of low patronage.”<\/p>\n

The engine generator technician said that in the past, he used to switch off his mobile phone and dodge customers because of multiple requests.<\/p>\n

“The demand was very high in the past, so we decided who to attend to and when, unlike now.”<\/p>\n

“I used to repair between 13-16 broken or faulty generators daily,” he said. “It has been two years since we experienced a dramatic change in patronage after the removal of fuel subsidy. Now, we repair less than three engines a day.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nigeria is a major importer of engine generators in Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigeria has been the major supplier of engine generators in the African continent. The situation is compounded by the inability of the state to provide a constant power supply.<\/p>\n

According to the Nigeria Generator Market 2024 report, Nigeria is a significant importer of engine generators in Africa. The report said that in 2024, Nigeria’s generator imports decreased by 1.1% to $408 million, following four years of growth.<\/p>\n

They’re counting profits while we count losses daily<\/strong><\/p>\n

The failure of the country to provide its citizens with a constant power supply was seen as a business opportunity by engine generator vendors like Bashir Mohammad Sabo.<\/p>\n

“It was a great business in the past because of the high public demand,” he said. “I used to sell between three to five engines daily, but now we hardly sell three in a month.”<\/p>\n

Just like Abdullahi (the generator mechanic), Sabo is also not very sure if he will continue in the business for the next three months.<\/p>\n

“Most of my colleagues have changed businesses; the majority of them are now into renewable energy,” he said. “They are counting profits while we are counting losses on a daily basis.”<\/p>\n

Nigeria’s power supply struggles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigeria’s current electricity generation is around 5,100-6,000 megawatts (MW), with a peak generation of 6,003MW recorded in March 2025. However, the country needs significantly more to ensure an uninterrupted power supply.<\/p>\n

According to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, Nigeria requires investments worth about $262 billion to achieve its ambitious target of expanding electricity generation capacity to 30,000MW by 2030. The country’s estimated energy demand is over 98,000MW, highlighting a substantial gap between current generation and actual demand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The failure of the country to provide its citizens with a constant power supply was seen as a business opportunity by engine generator vendors like Bashir Mohammad Sabo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":53873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,50,8,52,18,17],"tags":[94,229,218,30,227,228,230],"class_list":["post-53872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-investigation","category-local-news","category-news-en","category-regional-news","category-stabilization","tag-climate-change","tag-engine-generator","tag-environment","tag-nigeria","tag-power-supply","tag-renewables","tag-youth-empowerment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53872"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53878,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53872\/revisions\/53878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}