The reception is dimly lit and a small fan barely moves the humid air as staff at Chidinma Emeneka’s laundry service in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, wait for the generator to kick in.
It roars into action, but the engine noise marks the start of additional operating costs that must be paid due to the failing energy sector.
For ten days, more than a third of the country’s 36 states have been in darkness due to a major disruption in the transmission network.
Ms Emeneka is one of the millions affected and is now struggling to keep her business, Sparkle Inn Laundry Services, afloat.
The 27-year-old told the BBC that her business used expensive generators to keep going after being without electricity for about six weeks once before.
On that occasion, the cause was an electric shock that damaged her meter.
“My meter is bad, the platform to request a new meter is down, there is no way to get a new meter and there is no way to get light.”
This time, the entire neighborhood has been plunged into darkness for over a week.
“Currently we maintain it with an inverter and a generator, but the price of fuel is driving me crazy at the moment,” says Ms Emeneka.
Her launderette offers a 72-hour service to return clean clothes, but the power shortage means some customers have to wait up to a week.
She says she is forced to spend 35,000 naira ($21; £16) a day on fuel for her generator – and that is on sunny days, when a solar panel system is in operation. On cloudy days, generator costs can be double.
The BBC contacted the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies electricity to some parts of Lagos, to ask about Ms Emeneka’s case but received no response.
The problems with the country’s electricity grid are endemic, affecting large numbers of people in one of Africa’s largest economies.
Officials have confirmed eight cases of nationwide power outages this year alone.
“The truth is that we have an old infrastructure. We have a national network that is more than 50 years old. The towers are falling and the substation transformers are old,” said Energy Minister Adebayo Adelabu.
“We have tried to innovate and change this, but they cannot all be changed overnight.”
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, which is responsible for supplying power, said the latest widespread outages were caused by vandalism to a major transmission line.
Officials said they were working hard to restore power to homes and businesses, with power recently returning to seven of the affected states after a nine-day blackout.
In Lagos, parts of the city and its suburbs remained in the dark on Friday.
Many who cannot afford the more than 500% increase in fuel prices to run their generators are relying on their hand fans to combat the heat.
Last April, authorities increased electricity rates by more than 300%, with consumers who receive more than 20 hours of electricity per day paying more. The government said the electricity subsidies it paid were depleting the country’s resources.
Some energy experts have accused the government of failing to invest in improving infrastructure.
Analyst Oti Ikomi agreed that vandalism was responsible for some recent outages, but warned that the problems would persist without more investment.
“Unfortunately the technical side, the improvement of all the necessary infrastructure, has been delayed. Commitment is needed,” he told the BBC.
Nigeria’s northern states have been hardest hit by the outages.
Businesses such as frozen food sellers lost thousands of dollars throwing away spoiled food, including frozen fish, chicken and turkey.
The advice from experts for small businesses wanting to keep going is to install solar panels and inverters as a backup if the grid collapses, but the costs are prohibitive for many.
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