Zanzibar — AT least two factories in Unguja Island have closed down their business due to reasons linked to lack of electricity since December 10, this year, it has been learnt.
Mr Abdallah Abbasi, the president of Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (ZNCCIA) told the 'Daily News' that Huda Tissues factory and Zanzibar Poultry Company (ZAPOCO) have closed their business.
"The impact of lack of electricity can be felt in all sectors including tourism and trade. It is now tourism season, many visitors are uncomfortable with staying in hotels without electricity, particularly at this period of hot season," he said.
Mr Abbasi said even common people in the streets have been affected because of escalating prices of most essential commodities.
"I appeal to members of the business community not to take lack of power as an advantage of hiking prices," he said.
"We ask the government to do its best in making sure that the electricity is restored as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we also ask the government to temporarily halt tax on fuel as the best way to control price increases," Mr Abbasi said.
Lack of electricity in Unguja islands have also fuelled burglary, and increased use of firewood and charcoal, hampering efforts to fight environment degradation.
Although the work at Fumba power station has been stopped due to Christmas and New Year holidays, the Minister responsible for Energy, Mr Mansour Yussuf Himid said that the work would resume soon plus government's plans to purchase standby generators.
Meanwhile, despite queues at the only NBC's ATM located at Zanzibar stone town, the bank's Head of Marketing and Communication, Mr William Kallaghe noted that the bank's business in the island had not been affected by the current blackout.
"Fortunately we have a standby generator at our main centre in Zanzibar, therefore, our business is normal," he said.
However, he admitted that having only one ATM was inconvenient to NBC customers.
NBC has three ATM machines located at different places in the Stone town, but two have been out of order due to lack of electricity.
Mr Maggid Mluku of the newly opened National Micro-finance Bank (NMB) branch in Zanzibar also said that his bank was doing well.
"But the main problem is unreliable supply of fuel. If the fuel becomes scarce, running cost increases as we depend on a generator," he said.
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It is a great shame that in the 21 century, Zanzibar Islands, the Islands which had an outstanding development in the early 1900s for almost east and central Africa, are in blackout for more than a week. While the Islands are in such mess, Ministers and Politicians are devouring tax payers money to increase their bells and the bells of their families. Who cares - they have generators, AC, expensive cars, and everything - which are fueled by tax payers money; meanwhile, the majority/tax payers are suffering, the suffering that has been caused by the stupidity and ignorance of so called Ministers and Politicians. Why not have stand-by spare parts for such emergency? Why we have more than 3 expensive stand-by cars for the President, but not transformers among other important parts. When will Zanzibar learn the lesson? It was just couple of months ago Zanzibar was in power outage? Didn't we learn anything? I remember my english teacher use to say " A fool is a fool even if s/he goes to school." Now the Minster is talking about stand-by generator. Can you please speak the truth? Stand-by generators or somebody, somewhere, in somewhat want to make some billions of money. Bob Marley said " You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time." Zanzibar Islands, the Isles of less than a million population, the Isles that have abundant alternative sources of power, are in blackout for more than a week in this century? THIS IS A BIG SHAME. Why not utilizing the off-shore winds, tidal waves and ocean currents to generate the power? Why not cut down millions of government spending for Ministers to do shopping overseas, and using this tax payers money for the development of our Isles? WE MUST LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKE. An Ignorant is the one who denies the fact, while s/he knows that this is the fact. An Ignorant is the one who repeats the same mistake over and over again.