POWER SHORTAGE AS A THREAT TO THE GROWTH OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE BUSINESSES IN NIGERIA: FINE AND APPLIED ARTS VULNERABLE GROUPS IN FOCUS

Abstract

Frequent service breakdown and a transmission collapse have remained the trademarks of Nigeria power distribution industry. Many valuable time and resources are wasting daily due to power failure. This is limiting the growth of Nigerian economy; people are finding it difficult to rely on power as a means of sustaining their businesses most especially the small and medium industries that accommodate largest percentage of ordinary citizens. Hence, this paper focuses on power shortage in Nigeria as a great threat to the growth of small and medium business. It is an attempt to deal with some vulnerable groups such as: the pot maker (pottery), textile artist, graphic artist, sculptor, painter, decorator and other entrepreneurial skills embedded in Fine and Applied Arts. The paper also focuses on economic implications of power shortage on these businesses. The theoretical framework of this work hangs on social theory of modernization propounded by Klyukanov (2015) and states that, societies go through stages of development, moving from traditional to modern societies as they adapt technology, institutions and values,Interrogative investigations through key informant interview (KII) with historical findings were used under qualitative research method. Recommendations are put up to sensitize the business owners and the government in order to find possible solutions to the problem of the electricity supply in Nigeria.