y Chinwe Unachukwu

The Chief Executive Officer of   Victory World Info-communication café,  Engr. Ifeanyi  Okoli  has attributed dwindling fortunes of Cybercafes across the country  to power  even as he appealed to the federal government  for  timely intervention.

According to him,  “We also  have problems from our service provider. Once the  server goes off, the network will slow. When this kind of problem comes up,  all our customers will  leave thereby reducing the number of patronage clients who were coming in to browse or to do business”.

He went further to state that inadequate supply of electricity has crippled so many cafes in the country.
“We spend more than we earn in fueling and likewise servicing our generators and many other problems that we solve on our own,” he said.Apart from power challenge, he said that   multiple taxation is also affecting their operation, adding that the operators pay pay  tax to both  state and local government.

He appealed to government agencies for intervention  on the lingering electricity power issue
Similarly, Mr. Ogbemudia, the owner of Tohan Computer College in Surulere,, in his own reaction noted that : “Electricity is the number one challenge confronting our business and is a general problem.

“We need regular electricity to function effectively as the school is always busy and we run the section from morning till night.
He said that  generators consume 60 to 120 litres of diesel a day and this makes maintaining the business difficult.

For Mr.Okechukwu Ajaegbu who owns Reg Café alleged that a cable worts N300,000 that transfers light from a transformer to the entire area was stolen, a situation which has left the entire neighborhood in total darkness  for weeks. “The cable was only replaced after a levy of N2,500 had been paid by each compound in the area,” he said.