Kano govt donates transformer to communities that spent year in blackout

Kano state government has donated a transformer to Gadon Arewa community and its environs at Mariri area in Kumbotso Local Government for reconnection after spending about a year without electricity supply.

The donation came after BizPoint published a story titled; “Blackout: Businesses collapse, cost of living soars as Kano communities spend a year in darkness” on 14th September.

This newspaper reported that the blackout at Gadon Arewa, a densely populated community was caused by transformer fault, when the residents were one day thrown into panic by a thunderous blast of the electric installation.

Since then, the area and its environs had not seen light again, situation that had inflicted hardship on the residents as business activities had collapsed amidst rising cost of living.

BizPoint correspondent visited the area and observed the palpable effect of the blackout at the community as small scale businesses were adversely affected.

The newly donated transformer.

However, after struggling to get reconnected, the state government, through Rural Electricity Board, came to the rescue of the communities by donating a brand new transformer out of the 500 approved to be distributed by the state governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf across the 44 local government areas of the state recently.

Our correspondent, who visited the area as a follow-up to our earlier story, found that the communities had been reconnected about a fortnight ago.

It was observed that the old transformer had been replaced by the new one, with “Abba Gida-Gida 2025” inscription at the same spot.

Our correspondent had observed that the chaotic nature of the area had since come back as business activities and social life had returned to normal.

Speaking to our correspondent, the residents expressed happiness and gratitude to the government for saving their businesses on the verge of collapse as a result of the prolonged blackout.

The Old transformer

They also thanked BizPoint for reporting the situation, leading to the donation of the new transformer.

Mallam Suraja, who operates a phone-charging service outlet told our correspondent that they are very happy that the government has done the needful by providing the community with a new transformer.

According to Suraja, within just the two weeks of the restoration of the power in the area, business activities have revived, adding that business owners have noticed revival in their economy.

“We express our profound gratitude to Governor Abba for listening to our cries and donating us a new transformer to our community. We are now reconnected and the year of blackout has since been something of the past to us.

” As you can see, within just two weeks, our businesses have revived. I am happy because my business is yielding profits now. I will no longer depend solely on fuel to run by business. At least i have saved some costs from fuel,” said Suraja

Another business owner who runs a Rufaida Yoghurt and soft drinks shop, Umar Aliyu said the restoration of power to the community has relieved from buying fuel and ice block.

“If power is brought at night, my drinks will get chilled by morning. I can almost all without using generator. This means i am now saving a lot from buying fuel. The time i take to use my generator has reduced.

“Alhamdulillah, life is now easy for us. We are grateful to the governor for this kind gesture. We will not also forget BizPoint for reporting the situation. Indeed without your support, we would not have gotten this support,” he said.

Most of the residents that spoke to us expressed appreciation to the governor and our newspaper for the full restoration of electricity in the communities.

They also assured of maintaining the transformer to last long on a bid to avoid experiencing blackout again.