Peter Uzoho narrates how the arrival of a solar-powered mini-grid under the Rural Electrification Agency’s (REA) Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up project is beginning to change both commercial activity and daily life in Damakusa community.
For generations, Damakusa, a rural community in Yangoji, Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, lived beyond the reach of electricity. Darkness shaped when businesses closed, how families cooked, when children studied and how far local enterprise could grow. Today, that reality is beginning to change. As reliable electricity powers homes, businesses and agriculture for the first time in more than 70 years, the community is discovering that the real value of electricity lies not only in lighting homes but in expanding opportunity. THISDAY visited Damakusa to examine how access to electricity is beginning to reshape livelihoods, productivity and hopes for the future.
Vivian used to wrap her drinks in bowls of cold water. It was the only way she knew to keep them cool enough to sell in the heat of northern Nigeria. The method barely worked, her profits were thin and by nightfall her small shop was shut like every other business in Damakusa Community, Yangoji, Kwali Area Council. After dark, the community in FCT simply ceased.
