A roadside vendor sells Tigernuts lit up with torchlight at a market without electricity at Ibafo, Ogun State southwest Nigeria, on March 22, 2022. – Blackouts are common in Africa’s top petroleum producer, where dilapidated infrastructure often fails to distribute even insufficient electricity supplies.
But extended collapses of the power grid over the last several weeks have combined with a global hike in diesel prices to create one of the country’s worst recent energy crises.
Many businesses rely on diesel generators to keep the lights on when power is out, and since Ukraine’s crisis doubled fuel prices in Nigeria, operating costs are sky-high. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)