ONITSHA -The Onitsha Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Wednesday that power outage was impeding the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) in the South-East zone.
The President of the chamber, Dr Tim Anosike, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Onitsha that the people of the zone were finding it difficult to put their industrious nature to practice owing to epileptic power supply.
Anosike noted that all over the world, SMEs were the drivers of the economy, hence the need for the government to ensure constant power supply.
“As I am speaking to you, many of our members are complaining of power outage; some of them run their businesses with gasoline and they say they are spending too much.
“By the time you put overhead cost to what they are doing you see that they are not producing.
“They are thinking of even laying some of their workers off because of the power outage; they cannot produce as expected.
“I am aware, too, that recently the Federal Government announced it would add about 700 mega-watts (of electricity) to cover Onitsha and environs.
“We are yet to see the implementation of that because once that is done it would boost supply to our industries, our homes, and even hotels.
“So, if these things are coming it would help our people. You know no industry can run without power.
“Even if it means piping gas to these industrial harbours we should do it. So, there is absolute need of power to run these industries.“
The president of the chamber noted that with efficient power supply, no fewer than 50,000 individuals could become self-employed apart from the opportunities that would be provided by industries. [eap_ad_1] He added that constant power supply could help revive collapsed companies.
“Only very few people can afford generators; so if adequate power could be made available, people would be able to put their skills to productive use and become self-employed and self-sustaining.
“Also, when this is done there will be a reduction in crime; there would be reduction in abnormal behaviours in the society.
“We want to help these youth by providing them with what will make life easier for them,“ he said.
Many factories in industrial layouts in Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, Orlu, Enugu and Abakaliki had closed down owing to power outage, with most of their laid off workers resorting to commercial motorcycling as a means of livelihood. (NAN)
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