Electricity In Nigeria: Weighing "Direct Supply, Prepaid Meters & Solar Panels" Usage

Believe me, the story of how annoying and complicated the power supply system is in my country Nigeria is a never ending one, I can already feel the anger I felt a long time ago when it was way worse than it is now. The uses of electricity is unending and with most new inventions, we need power supply to use them.

Up till date, I still kinda look surprised when I hear of people in my country who have more steady power supply than I have ever imagined would happen anytime soon. At a time, I learnt that my country is actually one of those that provides power to other countries and I wondered how we could give what we don't use well for ourselves.

Presently, it's been quite the bliss to expect power supply at a particular time of the day and it actually happens. We make use of the prepaid meter, having full control over the usage and paying way lesser than we did a long time ago. I can remember the excitement of using a prepaid meter after a long term use of direct supply.

Now, we don't have to pay outrageous amount of fee for power supply especially on months we don't even get the supply to make use of, we only just spend on how much of it we spend each day, weekly and monthly. The ease of recharging the meter from the comfort of our home and keeping track of it till it runs out is a game changer for us.

I doubt I'll forget the times we lived relying on direct supply to have electricity in our home. Back then, dad will always be in arguments alongside other neighbours about how high the fees were when they didn't even get much supply in a month. At that time, it was a "Two days off, one day on" routine, and it was really frustrating!

That era actually taught us to utilise the light well enough before the off days begin. We've gone days, weeks and even months without during the time we relied on direct supply and the excuse back then was, every area was relying on it so they had to ration it but it still wasn't ever a steady supply on the days we are set to have it.

I've been opportune to live in a house using solar panel energy to supply the house with electricity and I must say, the experience is like none other. I know it's the expenses to get it installed in every house that is holding some people away from getting one for themselves but aside that, nothing much to spend and there's steady supply.

It's one of my plans to have solar panels installed in our home so we don't always have to rely on our prepaid meter for steady light, I believe with the two put in place, there is hardly going to be the "no light" issue coming up especially in these times where we use electricity for everything and anything. Hopefully, things will get better here.