Nigerians Banks to close early on Monday because of fuel scarcity

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday May 25, 2015 at 12:32:6:

I wonder why Fuel scarcity is always an annual problem in Nigeria and this is one reasons why I've always supported the total removal of fuel subsidy so that there will always be fuel. Well, the fuel scarcity Nigeria is currently experiencing in May 2015 seems to be the worst so far in history as it has already made big companies to start shutting down for business.

I received an email from my bank recently informing me that they would close early on Monday as a result of the persisting fuel scarcity. Since a lot of banks and businesses in Nigeria normally rely on power generators to produce electricity, the fuel scarcity is making it harder for them to continue doing so as even black market product are becoming more scarce.

Many banks this week will be closing down until gasoline and petrol starts becoming available at the filling stations again. Even telecommunication companies like MTN and Airtel have given a notice of their impending inability to continue with their operations as a result of the fuel scarcity. They normally need fuel to power their generations at their base stations and branches.

The nation has been having a huge problem for many years as a result of the Power company's inability to match increasing electricity demand with supply and Nigerians require more than 40,000MW while the power company is still producing less than 7000MW which is a far cry from what it should be producing.

Well, banks have started closing now as a result of the fact that they are not able to buy the fuel that their power generators need in order to generate electricity.

Now that banks will be closed and probably telecommunication companies may soon follow suit too in the short term, I do hope that other banking services such as ATMs, internet banking and mobile money will still be working.

Nigeria already has a huge power problem and there have been plans to integrate other means of power such as solar and wind power generators to help supplement the shortcomings of hydro-powered electricity generators. The fuel crisis has become an added problem and this is paralyzing business in Africa's richest nation.