This outage could not have come at a worse time, right in the middle of a hot season when basic comfort depends on working air conditioners and fans.
Since dawn on June 15, SEEG customers have been unable to purchase EDAN units, the credits essential for their prepaid meters.
In an official statement, the utility company acknowledged a “computer malfunction” that occurred overnight, but gave no precise timeline for a fix, only a promise of imminent restoration according to sources late in the day.
Desperate subscribers flocked to the SEEG headquarters in central Libreville hoping for a miracle, but the counters remained silent.
“We have no reliable information. Everyone just has to wait until it comes back,” said resigned customer Eric Ovono, reflecting the general frustration over the information blackout.
Jennifer Engouma, who usually buys her tickets from small agencies, hit a wall. “They told me it was a connection problem. So I went downtown to the headquarters, and here too there are no units. I’ve been without power for four days. At night we share the house with mosquitoes,” she said wearily.
Marceline’s account is equally alarming. “It’s unbearable, especially with the heat! But we have no choice but to wait. I tried to pay via Airtel Money as usual, but it didn’t go through. We get a message in English that shows the system is failing. Food is spoiling in the freezer,” she fumed, pointing out the irony of an error message in a foreign language, a sign of a system that has lost its bearings.
Beyond the mere technical glitch, the resilience of SEEG’s digital infrastructure is once again being questioned.
In this era of forced digitalisation, where mobile payments and smart meters have become the norm, a single computer failure is enough to paralyse thousands of households, sending them back to outdated payment methods and passive waiting.
As night falls over Libreville, all eyes are on SEEG’s servers. Hope for a quick fix is on everyone’s lips, but for many the bitterness remains. The promise of reliable service has once again collided with the fragility of a system that, at the slightest jolt, plunges the capital into an alarming darkness.
