Wuse 2, long celebrated as Abuja’s most vibrant commercial district, is teetering on the brink of economic collapse amid an unrelenting power crisis. For the past month, beauty salons, boutique hotels, tech startups, cafés, restaurants and corporate offices have struggled through near-total darkness, forcing many proprietors to scale back operations or shut their doors entirely in the face of soaring generator costs and erratic electricity supply.
This local emergency echoes a national trend. According to the H2 2024 Economic Report by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, manufacturers spent a staggering N1.11 trillion on alternative energy in 2024—a 42.3 percent rise from N781.68 billion in 2023—and energy outlays leapt from N404.80 billion in the first half to N708.07 billion in the second half, a 75 percent surge in just six months. Many SMEs in Wuse 2 now find themselves on the brink of insolvency. “We can’t afford diesel daily anymore,” laments Seyi, manager of a beauty spa near Aminu Kano Crescent. “For every day the lights stay off, we lose customers and money. This is not sustainable.”
Juliet, who abandoned her nine-to-five job in July 2023 to launch a women’s clothing boutique in Wuse 2, admits she is reconsidering her dream. “I’m back to job hunting. I just can’t cope,” she told Nairametrics. “I spend about N100,000 weekly on electricity. We hardly get five hours of light a day, even at the best of times, and we’re on Band A. Sometimes, for more than two straight days, we go without light. How much am I even making?”
Residents and business owners describe a vacuum of leadership and solutions. “Businesses in Wuse 2 are dying like flies… There’s little to no electricity provision in Abuja’s commercial hub for at least a month. They can’t run fully on generators. The cost of electricity is too high for even Aso Villa, let alone small businesses,” wrote resident Fakhuus Hashim on X. His post captures the growing disillusionment of an entire district that once prided itself on being the nation’s “centre of power.”
Industry insiders point to persistent infrastructure decay, distribution companies’ failure to meet commercial demand, and the escalating price of gas and diesel as drivers of the downturn. “We were promised that metering and reforms would reduce inefficiencies. But what we have now is a system that fails at the very basic—keeping the lights on,” says Sule Muktar, a policy analyst at a local energy consultancy. Dr. Bulus Anag of Nasarawa State University warns that neglecting energy security imperils Nigeria’s ambitions of becoming a trillion-dollar economy. “When even Abuja’s most prestigious commercial zones can’t guarantee power, what message are we sending to foreign investors, startup founders, or global tech companies eyeing Nigeria?” he asks.
The plight of Wuse 2 is not an isolated incident but a microcosm of the broader energy challenges facing small and medium enterprises nationwide—an urgent reminder that reliable power is the bedrock of economic resilience.