Blackouts ravage Dar business operations

Dar es Salaam. The erratic nature of power supply in Dar es Salaam following the switching off of Kinyerezi gas plant has paralysed businesses.

 And although the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) says the 12-hour power cuts will end this Saturday, the black outs have adversely affected businesses, so much so that some individuals have had to stop running their businesses.

The problem has also caused congestion of workload in private and government offices whose activities are mostly driven by compute system application.

The Tanzania Electrical Supply Company (Tanesco) has already announced the power cuts may continue for another seven days starting yesterday.

A  survey by The Citizen in some section of the city saw standby power generators set out outside shops and offices long busy business areas.

The use of  generators has caused a considerable raise in prices for goods and services such as internet surfing and printing costs in secretarial services.

Some internet café operators in the city’s suburbs say they hiked surfing charges to cater for the extra costs incurred through using generators during power blackouts.

Mr Thomas Kigu, an attendant of the sun-rise internet café operating at Kijitonyama, said the high cost of running the power machines like buying oil means nothing they can do than rising cost of their services.

Surfing at his business in times of consistent power supply stands at Sh 1,000 per hour but today they are charging Sh1, 500 per hour.