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Read onTowns · 18 October 2026
Saki's first full year on the grid
Eighteen months after we switched on Saki, the town has 9,400 customers and close to 20 hours of supply a day. Here is what changed, and what still needs work.
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4 min
Published
18 October 2026
Before the switch-on
Until March 2025, most of Saki ran on generators. Shops closed at dusk, the hospital rationed its diesel and the weavers worked by daylight. The town asked us to come in 2021.
The first months
We fitted 6,000 prepaid meters before turning a single feeder on, so nobody started on an estimated bill. Then the feeders came on one by one, with a crew on every street.
The first night the lights came on, the whole street came out to look.
Eighteen months on
Saki now has 9,400 customers and averaged 19.8 hours of supply a day in October. The market stays open after dark, and the hospital has moved its theatre lights off its generator.
What still needs work
Saki is fed by a single line from Iseyin. One fault can still darken the town. A second line from the Oyo side is in design, due in 2027.
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