Assessment of the Impacts of Energy Poverty on Small and Medium Businesses in Benin City, Nigeria

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) coupled with the availability of stable and affordable electricity grid supply are crucial towards meeting key Sustainable Development Goals, especially poverty eradication, as well as addressing youth unemployment in developing countries. Unfortunately, electricity grid supply shortage remains a major setback to economic growth, where over 70% of Nigeria’s population makes their livelihood from SMEs. The present study hence aimed to examine the effects of electricity grid supply inadequacy on daily operations of small businesses in select quarters in Benn City, Edo State. A total of ten (10) small businesses were randomly sampled using questionnaire method across ten (10) quarters in the study area. The study found that majority of business owners (49.2%) rely on electricity grid supply for their daily operations. On whether electricity grid supply is reliable, 49.3% reported that supply is inconsistent (on and off), while 35.4% reported that supply is inadequate for their businesses. A total of 38.6% of the sampled respondents reported that electricity grid supply is only available for a period of 4-5hr/day in their quarters, 28.5% reported 6-10hr/day in other quarters, while 22.9% reported that supply is only available for less than 3hrs/day in their quarters. In terms of the effect of poor electricity grid supply on business operations, declining income level ranked highest (35.3%), followed by extra expenses incurred by business owners on alternative electricity supply especially power generating set popularly known as gen set (24.8%) and low patronage of clients especially soft drink and beer parlour businesses (17.5%).