Nigerians see worse power supply in April – NOI Polls

 Despite continued assurances from government officials that electricity supply across the country would improve, power outages experienced by Nigerians last month was worse than that of March, reveals NOI Polls Limited, Nigeria’s leading opinion polling and research organisation.

According to its survey, which sought to ascertain the situation of power supply in the country, over five in 10 Nigerians surveyed (51 percent) said power supply was worse in the month of April, up from 46 percent in March.

The results showed that the majority (29 percent) said power supply in their areas improved a little, followed by 27 percent who said it remained bad. Furthermore, 24 percent of Nigerians said it was very bad and had worsened; while 18 percent said there was no difference at all and two percent said power supply had improved appreciably.

According to NOI report, the South East and South South had the highest proportion of respondents who said power supply had improved (39 percent in total for each region) followed by the South West (36 percent in total).

The majority in the North West (28 percent) claimed there had been no difference at all in their power supply. The North East had the highest proportion of respondents who said power supply was bad in April (68 percent) overall and also that it was very bad and had worsened (34 percent).

In comparison with the results from the March 2013 poll, the current results showed a five-point increase in the proportion of respondents across the country who claimed their power supply has worsened over the last month.

Nigerians have generally continued to experience decline in power supply to their households in April compared to March 2013.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria was on April 17 reported to have said that power generation, which had dropped due to system collapse, had improved significantly to over 4,000 megawatts.

Chinedu Nebo, minister of power, had identified transmission as a major challenge facing the electricity sector, adding that government was working to resolve it to ensure improved power supply across the country.

FEMI ASU