Factors Affecting Power Outages in Nigeria
Chapter One
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of electric power outage on the profitability and competitiveness of SMEs, using SMEs operating within the Kaduna metropolis as a case study. The specific objectives are:
- To analyse the effect of power outage on Business in Nigeria.
- To analyse factors affecting power outage in Kaduna Metropolis.
- To analyse the effect of power fluctuations on the Return of Investment (ROI) of SMEs,
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reviews the literature on the effect of power outages in Nigeria. It discusses issues arising from the topic of interest as viewed from different perspectives, with a view of giving a theoretical and empirical foundation to the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Analysis of the relationship between the energy sector and economic development has been on-going though in scanty measures since the middle of the 19th century. However, the interest in the relationship was later fuelled by the energy crisis of 1970s that saw the increase of the study of energy costs of the production process and subsequent effects on industry and the economy as a whole (Jiang, Chen and Zhou, 2011). Many years later (in the 21st century), energy still holds a decisive significance for economic activity in that economic growth is determined by the energy resource of the country (Velasquez and Pichler, 2010).
ROLE OF ELECTRICITY IN BUSINESS
There is a symbiotic relationship between electricity and business. Energy supplies have a significant impact on economic activities (Velasquez and Pichler, 2010). This is because it is used for varied purposes ranging from production, storage, powering of office equipment and product display. Consequently, the use of electricity serves as input for production. This makes electricity an essential commodity for all industry types- manufacturing, service and distribution. Various sectors of the economy such as manufacturing and transport use enormous amounts of electric-ity (Haanes et al., 2011) for operation processes including storage, production. It is a critical resource needed to make products. In this respect, electricity as a “transformed unity” serves as a commodity. Consequently, suppliers of electricity have a strong influence on the buying organisation’s ability to gain a competitive advantage and provide solutions to their clients. This is because operators of SMEs have a high dependency on electricity as a standardised input, without it they cannot produce to satisfy their customers. This dependency on suppliers therefore explains the value of electricity to SME operations along two trajectories namely: supply risk and reliability of supply (Haanes et al., 2011)
Supply Risk
The supply risk trajectory is a critical factor along the perception of electricity as a resource for the operation of SMEs (Halldorsson and Svanberg, 2013) In a report by UNIDO (2009), it was revealed that, in spite of the abundant resources Africa is endowed with, it still struggles with supply challenges in electricity. According to the UNIDO (2009) finding, only 26% of house-holds have electricity making Africa the lowest in electricity penetration in all the continents. UNIDO (2009) reported that, an estimate of 547 million people in Africa lack access to electricity. Many reasons have been put forward by researchers and practitioners as the causes of such a predicament. For instance Mkhwanazi (2003) and Olumuyiwa and Mnse, (2008) have catalogued the following as the causes of poor access to electricity in Africa: Poor performance, resulting in poor quality of supply and service and an inability to meet growing electricity demand Insufficient managerial and technical skills to do the job Inability of the African country’s government to fund expansion or refurbishment, or to attract private sector investment into the power sector Lack of maintenance of the existing facilities due to inadequate finance/technical leading to reliability problemnappropriate tariffs, often resulting from political interference, with tariffs below marginal
Costs Poor governance or unstable governments due to regional and ethnic conflicts Poor economic status of African states especially south of the Sahara Inadequate revenue collection mechanisms, and therefore credit unworthy businesses .Inadequate rainfall which causes power rationing all these have culminated in poor supply of electricity with its attendant effects on the operations and performance of SMEs.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to analyse the effect of factors affecting power outage in Nigeria using SMEs in Kaduna metropolis as our case study.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source and
Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information regarding the factors affecting power outage in Nigeria. This Sampling was carried out with a total of 200 questionnaires administered to executives of SMEs in Kaduna metropolis whom were selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
INTRODUCTION
It is important to reiterate that the objective of this study was the effect of power outages in Nigeria.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in evaluating examine the effect It is important to reiterate that the objective of this study was the factors affecting power outages in Nigeria.
SUMMARY
This study was undertaken to examine the It is important to reiterate that the objective of this study was the factors affecting power outages in Nigeria. The study opened with chapter one where the statement of the problem was clearly defined. The study objectives and research hypotheses were defined and formulated respectively. The study reviewed related and relevant literatures. The chapter two gave the conceptual framework, empirical and theoretical studies. The third chapter described the methodology employed by the researcher in collecting both the primary and the secondary data. The research method employed here is the descriptive survey method. The study analyzed and presented the data collected in tables and the hypotheses were tested using the chi square to test hypothesis. While the fifth chapter gives the study summary and conclusion.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This research work examines the factors affecting power outage in Nigeria. Constants Power supply is the hallmark of a develop economy. Any nation whose energy need is epileptic in supply prolongs her development and risk-losing potential investors. Nigeria with population of over 120 million people has for the past 40 years of establishment of National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) agency empowered with the electricity generation, transmission and distribution, experience frequent and persistent challenges and problems Presently the federal government has embarked on power sector reforms like privatizing the power sector with the aim of improving the unpalatable scenario and in turn reduce the scope of monopoly control of the nations power industry.
We found that Power fluctuation decreases the Return of Investment (ROI) of SMEs and that there is no significant rationing of power to the SMEs.
REFERENCES
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