Total blackout affects business in Calabar

Residents of Calabar, Cross River State are enduring total blackout for over five days, a development that has crippled business activities.

The blackout, which started on Monday night, paralysed commercial activities, as shop owners who cannot afford to run power generating set closed early.

A barbing salon operator, Bright Ugo, lamented that he has been running his generator non-stop for five days.

According to him: “Well, I still thank God because I have a generator to run, but buying fuel is too demanding because it is affecting my profit.”

A computer centre owner, Mrs. Juliet Abang also lamented that her business has suffered because her generator was not in good shape. While calling on Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) to resolve the problem, she said most of her customers left because she could not deliver their jobs as agreed.

When contacted, Manager, Corporate Communications, PHED, Mr. John Onyi appealed to customers in the affected area to bear with the Disco, disclosing that the problem was from a faulty 150 MVA, 330/132KV power transformer, which belongs to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)

Onyi assured the problem would be fixed soon.