How Erratic Power Cuts Are Affecting Ghana's Creative Professionals

The country’s energy minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, says that Ghana has, “gone past the era where we have 72 to 96 hours of lights out and six hours of light on.” He adds that the country is in the era of, “dum sie sie,” which he says is, “profoundly different from dumsor." According to Prempeh, the current cuts are to allow for maintenance work.

Four creatives let OkayAfrica in on how the ongoing power issue is affecting their work and daily life.

Kofi Dotse, media and publishing

I started having a series of blackouts somewhere in the second week of April. There was no memo sent beforehand — as they usually do — and it has negatively affected my work. You have a pile of work to clear, and the power goes off for long periods, so you have to either postpone work or find an expensive alternative. We [Ghanaians] asked for a load shedding timetable, but the government refused to give us one, claiming that there’s no load shedding happening.

Asare Boateng, fashion illustrator and designer

I’d seen some tweets around the start of 2024 talking about power outages in parts of Accra. At the time I hadn’t experienced it, then around March my lights just started to go on and off. My creative process has been slowed down considerably. I work digitally on devices that need to be charged. I can’t do that when the lights are out every 12 hours or so. Also, there’s an ungodly heat that descends upon Accra when the lights go out and it makes working very uncomfortable. Projects that should take a week at most are being dragged out over months. The government has been gaslighting us. They can’t even admit there’s a problem.

I don’t know what can be done in the interim. Is there a way to get back the $50 million spent digging the hole for a cathedral nobody needed? Could we channel those funds into solving this issue?

Sena Affadu, project management/ creative production

I work primarily for clients in the U.S., the U.K. and Ghana. I’m project-managing multiple creative cultural designs within social equity and art spaces through remote sessions. That means I’ve faced multiple disruptions to my broadband connectivity, unexpectedly losing access to teams I’m executing projects with, and often in anxiety-inducing circumstances. I have had to leave the house during work calls, get to a cafe, and hope the internet connection there is stable enough to carry out certain activities. I’ve apologized to colleagues multiple times and asked to reschedule meetings simply because reliable infrastructure becomes unavailable once my power goes out.

Money leaves my pocket every time the power goes out during my productive hours simply because I have to seek electricity elsewhere whenever this happens. The government continues to prove they do not have respect for Ghanaians as they keep denying the obvious challenges around power generation, claiming there are issues around supply systems when several findings from the private sector and even government-run monitoring and compliance bodies point to a shortfall in power generation.

They are clearly load shedding, but refuse to admit it, as if the blowback from that admission would be any different from the frustrations of the actual problem.

On May 1 during the president’s speech to working people, he claimed the power issues had been resolved. A friend texted me later in the evening to come to my place to get work done as he had no power. It’s just infuriating that they keep lying.

Rigwell Addison Asiedu, publishing and content creation

There were a few power outages last year. But I noticed the frequency in late January. In the past, we were usually informed beforehand. But this time, no memo was sent out. I work remotely so my pace depends on constant electricity. I've been trying to work my way around it, but there's no pattern to the power outages. They are abrupt and random. It could be at any time of the day. So it has caused delays. Sometimes I have to work all night because that's when the electricity [is] restored.

It's also becoming increasingly hot in Accra, so when there's a power outage at night, it's difficult to sleep, and that affects my productivity during the day. Some of the work requires working with international brands, and I can't just use the epileptic electricity as an excuse. I have to deliver, so it's been quite frustrating. And fuel is so expensive. It's not feasible to switch to generators. I can't afford that right now.

The government keeps shifting the goalposts; now they say it's not dumsor (what we've always called the power outages) but "localized faults." To be honest, this has gone on for too long. Businesses are struggling, and creatives are struggling. We need stable electricity.

But if it can't be fixed in the shortest possible time, I think a timetable is somewhat reasonable. Just something for structure and predictability so we don't keep running in circles.