Turkish power company Karpower has cut off electricity to the capital of Guinea-Bissau in a payment dispute, an AFP journalist reported Tuesday.
This article was originally published by Insider Paper.
The lights went out in Bissau and its suburbs overnight Monday and failed to come back on.
“As you know, the supply of electricity was halted … it’s a unilateral decision by Karpower for failure to pay,” the Turkish company announced.
The former Portuguese colony’s water and power distribution firm EAGB said the contract to supply power was “unbalanced”, adding that several clients “do not pay their bills or pay late”.
Finance minister Suleimane Seidi said the debt amounted to 15 million dollars and that the government would solve the problem “as quickly as possible, probably today”.
The government of the West African state with a population of two million, signed a renewable five-year electricity supply contract with Karpower in October 2018.
“What are we going to do with our refrigerators full of food that we will have to throw in the bin. Who’s going to pay us back?” said Nene Bangura, who lives in the Bairro Ajuda area.
