The confirmation from Speaker of House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara today (Tuesday, July 18, 2017) that Nigerians spend about $5 billion yearly to fuel their generators underscores the huge resources lack of constant electricity drains from the system.
With fuel consumption of generators gulping all of $5 billion (N1.8 trillion), how about the other costs of purchasing and servicing them?
Here are some cost elements not listed in the $5 billion going to fuel alone:
1. Huge cost of purchasing the generators, with many organisations and individuals owning more than one set.
2. Cost of buying spare parts and servicing the generating sets.
3. Cost of wasted manpower due to managing or rationing the time the sets are on.
4. Loss of productivity by those who solely depend on public electricity.
5. The high percentage of production cost because of use of generators.
6. Cost of smaller generators fueled with petrol are possibly excluded. And these smaller sets are used by small and medium sized companies, artisans and households of middle and lower classes.
These listed costs far doubles the $5 billion used for fuel!