Lagos, Nigeria August 18 — Utility workers in Nigeria have suspended a nationwide strike that had thrown parts of Africa’s most populous nation into darkness, a union leader said Thursday.
The National Union of Electricity Employees had called the nationwide industrial action on Wednesday morning.
It said the strike was to compel the government to honour a 2019 agreement to pay retired workers of a former state-owned electricity company.
Power cuts were soon after reported in the economic capital Lagos, in the northern city of Kano and in the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
After a scheduled meeting late on Wednesday with the labour minister and other government representatives, “we suspended the strike,” union leader Joe Ajaero told AFP.
He said the government asked for two weeks to look into their demands.
“Normal operation will be restored immediately. But if after two weeks nothing is done we will resume the strike,” said Ajaero.
While the country has about 7,000 megawatts of electricity available, it distributes less than 4,000 because of a lack of technical capacity, resulting in patchy supplies.
The national grid has also suffered many collapses since the start of the year.
Many homes and companies depend on diesel-powered generators, which means higher operating costs.
