Power restored in the capital of Guinea-Bissau after two days power outage

The Turkish company Karpowership has turned the power back on in Guinea-Bissau’s capital city. They had previously shut off the electricity because the country had not paid a bill of $15 million.

The company started working again on Wednesday evening after getting a $6 million payment from the government.

Bissau was in darkness for nearly two days. Hospitals were affected and radio stations were not broadcasting.

This country is very poor and has had many problems since it became independent.

In 2019, the government of the country made an agreement with Karpowership, a big company that operates floating power plants, to provide all the electricity needed.

A company representative told the BBC that Karpowership is thankful for Guinea-Bissau‘s efforts to pay the bill, and this allowed them to start providing electricity again.

“Our fuel suppliers had to stop working because they couldn’t handle the long time without getting paid,” the spokesperson explained.

The Energy Minister, Isuf Baldé, said that $6 million out of the total bill of $15 million has been paid.

He said that in a small and poor country like Guinea-Bissau, it takes time to complete a transfer operation of such a large amount, which is $10 million.

He said that the agreement with Karpowership needed to be changed because the costs had increased by almost twice, making it too expensive to continue.

Electricity was turned off in Bissau, a big city with over 400,000 people, early on Tuesday.

According to local journalist Assana Sambu, a few public hospitals used generators during surgeries.

However, they didn’t have running water because there wasn’t enough electricity. The hospital directors asked for electricity so they could cook food for their patients.

Another journalist named Alberto Dabo said that he had to drink water from a well because the regular water supply had been turned off while the temperature was very hot, reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

The power outage also impacted media organizations, including the state-run Rádio Nacional, which had to stop broadcasting.

According to the African Development Bank, Guinea-Bissau has very few people who have access to electricity. They estimate that only 10% of the country’s population has electricity, and in the city of Bissau, it’s slightly higher at 20%.

In the city of Bissau, there are often power outages. Some areas of the city have no electricity for more than four hours each day.

The World Bank stated in 2020 that Guinea-Bissau’s electricity industry has been stuck in a bad situation for many years. This is because of problems like political instability, ineffective management, a lack of planning, and people in power prioritizing their own interests over the country’s needs.

The Turkish company made an agreement with South Africa, promising to supply more than 5% of the country’s power requirements.

However, it has adopted a strict stance towards not receiving payment. Last month, Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, had its power shut off because they didn’t pay a bill of $40 million.

Access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa has gotten better, but it’s still not very good. More than half of the people in the region don’t have electricity connected to a grid, according to the United Nations.