In 2015, if someone had told Alhaji Gembo that he would experience up to 20 hours of electricity and expand his cold drink business from one freezer to four, he would have doubted it. Back then, he was dependent on the local grid. Across Nigeria, because the conventional power supply is intermittent, small business owners like Gembo couldn’t dream of scaling especially when their business is electricity dependent. Instead, they pack up out of frustration.
For Gembo, this meant that the grid in Zawaciki, his settlement in Kano state, barely saw up to four hours of power per day. This is the case with many other residents in Nigeria — a country where over 85 million people lack access to sustainable and affordable electricity.
“We suffered in our work given the quality of the light [power],” says Gembo, who runs his business out of his home. The situation was so bad that the community could go up to two days without power.
But the narrative has changed. Installed in January 2024, a new 1-megawatt (MW) solar hybrid minigrid is ensuring that Zawaciki’s 1,000 homes receive 16 to 20 hours of power a day. The steadier power has spurred economic growth across the region.
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