In this third series of the Federal Government’s Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI), Olugbenga Adanikin, who earlier reported on the project status in Sabon Gari market, Kano, and the Iponri market in Lagos, also discovered that the project failed in the Ariaria International Market, Abia State. Initiated in 2017, the FG championed the private-sector-driven project meant to provide steady, cheap, and efficient off-grid power for micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs). But four years down the line, over 32, 000 shops in the Ariaria market remain unpowered, still rely on generators.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q0VpUIHx6M

When President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Ariaria market off-grid power project in January 2019, it was amidst glamour and great expectations.

The project developed by the Ariaria Market Energy Solutions Limited (AMESL), Aba, Abia State, was meant to achieve two major goals: support micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) with cheap, efficient power and also help achieve Nigeria’s climate ambition.

It is significantly among several market clusters piloted for the Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) of the Federal Government (FG).

With about 37, 000 shops comprising 90 zones, the Ariaria International Market is described as one of the largest in West Africa. Each zone has close to 300 shops. So, it can be considered a huge cluster.

Due to its trade volume estimated at about N144 billion, the market is often recognised as the China of Africa. This is not to mention the shoe-making cluster and leather business at the powerline section.

And so, the expectation was simple. With such project, executed through the FG’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA), traders were to begin to enjoy cheap, steady, and efficient clean energy, thereby improving Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business which stood at 53.4 point in 2019 and 56.9 in 2020.

“These shops are presently receiving constant, clean, and metered electricity with the remaining shops expected to be connected this year,” said REA’s former Managing Director Damilola Ogunbiyi, at the project commissioning in 2019.

But the reverse is the case.

Thousands of shops are still heavily dependent on generators and grid power. And this is similar to earlier findings in Kano and Lagos states.

Shoemaking artisans spend over N1 billion annually on power, lament exclusion
Just by the Ariaria market is the entrance to ‘Powerline,’ the shoemaking cluster. At the industrial cluster, you are welcomed by the deafening sound of generators.

The striking feature of the market is that it comprises artisans who solely manufacture footwear for domestic use and export to the West African countries. Unfortunately, the shoe cluster was excluded from the EEI project.

In Aba, traders troop in from Cameroun, Gabon, Abidjan, and other neighbouring nations for the locally manufactured Aba-made shoes.4

The exports indirectly contribute to the local economy, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), and the nation’s economic growth. Little wonder traders have continued to demand inclusion in the power intervention.

Field findings show that shoe artisans spend as high as N8, 000 monthly to power their generators, aside from monthly bills from the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).

While revealing the challenges confronting his members, President of Powerline Shoe Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Ikechukwunwa David says there are over 70, 000 shoe artisans battling with energy problems in Aba. David manages at least 5, 000 of them within the powerline cluster.

David assumes that considering the association’s contribution to the economy, the EEI should have been extended to the shoe manufacturing line. But, that was not the reality.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ariaria-market-failed-power-project-forces-aba-shoemakers-to-spend-over-n480m-on-powering-generators-part-3/

Are we supposed to be surprised?