Millions in Nigeria have little to no electricity, straining businesses and public services

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About half of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people are hooked up to a national electricity grid that can't provide sufficient daily electricity to most of those connected. Many poor, rural communities are off the grid entirely, which means millions in the country are finding ways to live with little to no electricity. Pupils squint at their books and intermittently the blackboard, as teachers try to hold their attention. It's a reality for many schoolchildren across Nigeria, where many buildings don't have access to the national electricity grid. In Excellent Moral School in Ibadan, school founder Muyideen Raji says it's affecting their learning: "Education has gone beyond writing and listening to teachers in class alone, so education has gone digital, and there’s no way we can give the students the best of what they need without electricity," he says. Communities like Excellent Moral School's in Ibadan that have no access to electricity are often surrounded by more fortunate ones that are connected to the grid but experience frequent outages and have to use gasoline and diesel-run private generators. With long-running petroleum subsidies now removed, many households, schools, hospitals and businesses struggle with the cost of fuel for their backup generators. The Lorat Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan has stopped using a diesel generator as an alternative due to costs, says headteacher Abdulhakeem Adedoja. Although the school is in an area that's connected to the grid, they can sometimes go two weeks without power supply. "We cannot even put our gadgets to use because of there’s no electricity around us,” he says, as computers gather dust in a classroom. The problem is not just the lack of electricity for computer-aided learning, proper lighting, and fans to make classes less stuffy for pupils and teachers. It's also that students are unable to complete their school assignments at home. Adedoja worries the school may have to close, as people are moving away from the area. "I have some people who have relocated just because they say that there’s no light in this community. So, we are losing pupils in the process," he says. This article was provided by The Associated Press.