An improved supply of electricity by the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDCO) in Yobe state has laid off electricity generating set mechanics and cell phones rechargers in Damaturu and its environs.
It is recalled that the state capital has been connected recently to the newly-completed 330 KVA electricity station to boost the supply.
Kanem Trust gathered that most of these business owners have resorted to other trades to complement their sources of income.
Muhammad Tajiruna Ibrahim, a generator repairer at One Million Road, Damaturu, said he spent over 15 years in the business but the experience this time was discouraging.
“Before this improvement, I used to repair at least 40 to 50 generating sets per week but now I hardly get 15. Sometimes, a day will come and pass without getting a single one,” he said.
He said that most of the generator mechanics had left the business for other trades.
“Some have started riding commercial tricycles, some to motorcycles repair and other trades. You know, as the saying goes, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” he said.
Tajiruna said he has five men working under him and they all have families to feed.
“Recently, I opened workshops for another set of three boys I graduated but, they were caught up by the unfavorable situation.”
Ustaz Muhammad Lawan, another generating set mechanic at Gujba Road, Damaturu said the improved electricity supply was a welcome development but not for them.
Lawan said that he learnt the trade from his father and it was what he has been doing since childhood.
“I have a wife and four children and we all feed from this business. Now, I don’t know what to do because, most times we don’t have any work to do. I sometimes return home without a penny.”
However, Malam Mustapha, a resident in Damaturu, who welcomed the improved electricity supply, said the epileptic electricity supply in the past had cost him lots of money.
He said that he was spending not less than N3000 daily on fuel and servicing his generating set and the voltage doesn’t support most of his home appliances.
“I cannot iron my cloths, I can’t switch on my deep freezer. Now that the electricity voltage and supply has improved, I hardly spend N5000 per month and all my home appliances work to full capacity” he said.
Shop owners, who spoke to Kanem Trust in Damaturu said the improved power supply had raised up their profit margins.
Malam Kalli, a shop owner around Gujba Road said that using the public power supply is cost effective.
“Before the power improved, I used to buy gas, and spent on my generating sets maintenance. At the end of it, we sometimes run at a loss”.
Another shop owner, Malam Ghali Yusuf, however, complained of high voltage supply which had destroyed his refrigerator.
“The light was restored on high voltage burning down all the wires in the shop. I thanked God that there was no fire outbreak.”
He appealed to the management of YEDCO to regulate the amount of voltage being release to customers to avoid serious problems.
However, The District Manager, Yola Electricity Distribution Company, Damaturu Business District, Engineer Usman Wakta, denied the shop owner’s claim saying the problem must have been from his wiring.
He said the new station now supplied a standard 200-220 voltage, “unlike before, when we were having low voltage”.
He called on the customers to bear with the company as electric bills and charges will not be as usual due the improved in voltage and supply.
