Ghana was thrown into darkness early Wednesday after a fault on the national power grid shut down several plants across the country.
The outage left Accra, the commercial city of Kumasi, and large parts of northern Ghana without electricity. State power distributor GRIDCo said engineers were working to restore supply as quickly as possible, but did not give a timeline.
“Our engineers and system operators are working continuously to restore power in the shortest time possible without compromising safety,” GRIDCo said in a statement. The company added that a full technical investigation is underway to find out what caused the failure.
The blackout disrupted daily life nationwide. Commuters struggled to get to work because phones were dead and mobile payments or ride-hailing apps like Uber would not work. Small businesses and people who rely on digital services were also hit hard. Larger facilities such as hospitals were less affected because most run on backup generators.
Ghanaians know these outages well. For years the country has dealt with “dumsor,” an Akan word meaning “on and off.” The problem had eased recently, but Wednesday’s cut showed how fragile the system still is.
Most of Ghana’s electricity still comes from ageing hydropower plants that have suffered from years of poor maintenance. The government has added gas-fired plants in recent years to meet rising demand in a growing, increasingly urban population. That helped reduce cuts, but experts say the sector remains exposed to transmission faults and fuel supply problems.
Ghana is one of the world’s top producers of gold and cocoa, and stable power is critical for both households and industry.
GRIDCo says it will update the public once normal supply resumes.
