Frequent power outages - A curse for Africa!

This applies even to inhabitants of continental economic powerhouses like Nigeria and South Africa. Just last week, my daughter, a fresher at the University of Botswana, was in the process of taking her first ever online examination when her computer unceremoniously shut down. No, it was not a low cash issue. It was either an unplanned, or planned, but unannounced mains power failure. Fortunately, two things worked in her favour, the programme used for her examination automatically saved her work and the outage lasted no more than 20 minutes.

Power outages should not be that much of a problem if they are few and far between, but when they are the norm, they are an unwelcome irritant for households, firms, students, and their instructors. For many people, the worst time for a power outage is at night. This leaves many families feeling insecure and vulnerable to opportunistic criminals who are always keen to take advantage of blackouts. And of course, leisure time with friends and family can easily be ruined by outages, particularly when they are prolonged, as typical in many African countries.