The Ariaria Market Independent Power Project (IPP) is located within Ariaria Market, the biggest market in the West African sub-continent. At its inauguration in January last year, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) extolled its potential of the gas-fired power plant, an extensive distribution network and robust metering systems for each shop.

REA said an initial 4,000 stalls were connected with constant and affordable electricity, with the remaining shops expected to be connected before the end of 2019, even as it boasted that the IPP was the beauty of the Federal Government’s Energising Economies Initiative (EEI).

The initiative is meant to be deployed as off-grid electricity solutions to provide clean, safe, affordable and reliable electricity to economic clusters (e.g., market places, shopping centres, industrial facilities) in Nigeria through private sector developers.

A usually reticent President Buhari was effusive as he inaugurated the project: “We are heading towards moving our economy further. Jobs are created through investment in projects such as this. This project shows progress can be made irrespective of political difference.”

REA Managing Director Damilola Ogunbiyi said the project epitomised the commitment of the Buhari administration to providing uninterrupted power supply to the market. He said the move would provide the needed boost to traders to succeed and contribute to the growth of the economy.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu said: “We rallied around and said we must do the needful to give Aba the option of which power source to choose and this is far better than whatever they have seen before now.”

Just over a year after, that enthusiasm is waning, especially among traders, who are losing hope on the prospects of the Ariaria IPP holds for their businesses. Some described it as a charade, white elephant and even a fraud.

The dream of job creation, extensive distribution network and ‘robust metering system’ are a far cry from what currently prevails at the market, where traders still rely on non-conventional method of electricity supply, in one of the most bustling commercial hubs in Nigeria.

The power plant stands out on Faulks Road, where its imposing structures overlook the A-Line sector of the multi-billion naira market. But its beauty structure has had a very little or no impact on activities of traders, who expected it to banish the spectre of power problems that cripple their businesses.

At the shoe and leather work parts of the market, traders lament lack of power. The situation is so bad that one of the biggest leather workshop owners (names withheld) lobbied and attracted a 33KVA line to the area to ease the problem.

The business owner, who has about 12 members of staff in his employ said: “Without the industrial line, there would have been nothing happening here.”

He was the lucky one among other traders and business operators, as the industrial line he uses only serviced a small part of the market, comprising one street.

Other traders, manufacturers and fabricators who spoke with our reporter were unanimous that Ariaria Market IPP project is a failure.

Mama Joshua, a caterer at one of the rows of building facing the AMES IPP, was plain when she told our reporter that the project is a failure. Pressed further for explanation, the middle-age woman spoke softly; her words were laced with sarcasm and caustic humour interspersed with wry smiles.

“I am telling you that the power company is not working and you are still asking plenty questions. It is like you don’t believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What the President and his vice came and do (at the market) is ojuju calabar (charade).

“Who are the traders using the light? I am very close to the place. Oga (master), it seems that you doubt that Jesus has resurrected. It is not just 4,000 traders (using the light), there are more than 20 million,” she said, when our reported quoted the REA figure of traders connected.

Our findings revealed that the controversy over the AMES IPP was sparked off just days after it was inaugurated. The Ariaria Market Energy Solution Limited, the company handling the project, has also failed to offer traders a better option than what already existed in the market.

Ikpeazu, who also hoped that the AMESL’s IPP would help in eradicating over 6,000 individual (power) generators providing light for traders at the market, is disappointed.

In January last year, he lamented that the generators are sources of massive environmental and noise pollutions in the area.

Commissioner for Information John Okiyi, in a telephone chat, said the state was determined to ban the operators of generators in the market.

Yet, the power generators operators continue to wax stronger than ever by increasing the challenges posed by the new entrant. They reinvented their operation and wooed customers with improved and better quality services.

It was gathered the local service providers charge as little as N100 – N200 per day to provide electricity from when the market opens about 8:00 in the morning till close of the day’s business at 5:00 p.m. The services and costs are based on the needs of the users and as such, they are cheaper than the conventional sources.

Unlike in the past when their generators often breakdown and throw sections of the market they service into darkness, the operators now ensure constant and uninterrupted supply through improved infrastructure.

One of the operators who spoke to our correspondent and who doesn’t want his name in print said they are prepared to give the IPP a run of their money, despite government’s opposition to their businesses.

“Most of us now own several generators from Lister to Mikano and Perkins. There are also standby, so that as soon as one goes off, another is started immediately to ensure that light is available always.”

Apart from uninterrupted power supply, the prices of the ‘local IPPs’ are more competitive than that of the AMES’ IPP.

“If you have only bulbs, and maybe fan, the price (charged by local operator) is N200 per day, and the light is uninterrupted from when we come to work in the morning till when we leave in the evening. Once you pay your bill, you are sure of light,” Chike, a footwear dealer at the shoe and bags section told our reporter.

The fees charged by AMESL, on the other hand, although lower at just N160 per day, epileptic services means consumers do not get value for their money, Chike said.

Asked why traders still refused to switch to the cheaper, cleaner power option, the traders said AMELS accused the company of insincerity, adding that they change initial agreement reached with them.

“I do not use the IPP light because what they told us initially is not what they later did. When they were about to connect us, they told us that after installation, it will be cheaper than what we were using. They said we will have prepaid meter, which we can recharge,” Chike said.

“The problem started when they finished the project. One day they were here to tell us that they have switched on the power to test it. We were very happy. After two days, they came to say they’ll be collecting money and they were disconnecting people.”

Chike’s neighbour, who was connected to the IPP source, said he only used it for a few days before he went back to the local electricity providers.

For him, the trouble started when AMESL official visited the market and demanded N4, 000 ‘registration fee’ to remain connected.

“The cables have not even gone round the market, but they said we should register with N4, 000 and after that they’ll give us prepaid meter,” he said.

Still some traders went ahead and made the commitment, hoping that they would be metered and allowed to recharge their meters based on usage.

It didn’t work out, according to Anayo Ameobi, who operates from another section of the market. Instead of individual meters, general meters were placed at strategic points in A-Line, from where lines are taken to the shops.

“Later they said we should pay the minimum N160 (to recharge) for a couple of days or even a week. But that was a scam because it doesn’t last even one day; sometimes within two hours the light is off and you have to pay extra money.

“We felt it was not supposed to be like that. Some of us have prepaid meters at home, and if you recharge and you don’t use it, it remains, but with this, once you recharge and you don’t use it in a day it is gone, the next day you have to pay in order to recharge.

“Again, they’ll come and access the facilities, fans, bulbs music players in your shop and they will bill you based on that. That is not like the prepaid meter we know, and it changes everything for us.”

For them, the IPP is not an improvement on what they used to have, either with the EEDC (Enugu Electricity Distribution Company) or the local providers who use heavy duty generators.

“With the EEDC, you are asked to pay N46, 000 for meter, and they use the money paid to give you light (credit worth N46, 000), which can last for months. With the EEDC, what you recharge is what you’ll use, and when you exhaust it, you can recharge another N1, 000 and it could last for a month or more,” another trader stated.

Okiyi agreed with the traders. “It is not right to charge the traders for light from 5:00 p.m. till morning,

“We are not happy about the non-metering of the shops and we have been appealing to the company to see how they can meter the shops and ensure that more people are connected.

“It doesn’t make sense if, as traders, they are not using power in the night, they possibly use power from 7:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. when they close, and then you are billing them from 5:00 p.m. to the next day. It doesn’t make sense,” Okiyi stated.

He appealed to AMESL to “look at the applicable charges.

“We were shocked that some segments of the market chose to patronise power generating set company that has been banned in Abia,” he said.

He, however, conceded that the Ariaria IPP and the EEDC need to help the state by ensuring proper metering of the traders and removing the N4, 000 charges mentioned earlier.

On allegations that the state government was behind illegal charges and exorbitant rates, he said: “It is not our project and we are not responsible. It is not our project and we lack the constitutional right to do so.”

Effort to speak with AMES official at the company’s office was unsuccessful. A man who was identified as ‘Manager’ refused to be drawn to any issues on the company’s operations.

“I am not competent to speak on any matter,” he said. Pressed for contacts of those competent – telephone number or name or address – he asked our reporter to visit the company’s website, which address he also refused to provide.

“The name and telephone number of the person you can speak with is in the website,” he said.

Online searches failed to yield any results, with all links directing us to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) website. After seven calls to different officials of the REA, we were able to reach Sulaiman Babamanu, the agency’s Technical Manager.

Babamanu, also declined comment, stressing, “the company (AMES) is a private company and I don’t have authority to speak for them.” (The Nation)

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