‘No power, no business’: How Ghanaian traders are coping with repeated outages

For Enyonam, a hairdresser in Teiman in Ghana’s Greater Accra Region, a power outage can mean one thing: fewer or no customers.

“Anytime there is no light, most of my clients will not come, which means no work,” she says.

Much of her work depends on electricity, so when the power goes off, she cannot simply carry on as normal.

Her experience is shared by businesses across Ghana that rely on electricity for everything from refrigeration and cooking to payment systems and basic equipment.

The latest disruption came on Thursday, when a widespread power outage affected parts of the country.

The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) said a fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission line at about 04:30 GMT triggered the automatic shutdown of the Akosombo generating units and some thermal generating plants.

GRIDCo said electricity had been restored to some affected areas, while technical teams continued working to reconnect customers who remained without power.

But for businesses, the consequences of an outage can continue long after the lights go off.

‘We have to stop serving food’

At a restaurant in Mokola, Accra, Emmanuel says power interruptions can force businesses to halt operations almost immediately.

Food preparation can be disrupted when electrical cooking equipment, extraction systems and ventilation are unavailable.

Electronic payment systems can also stop working, making it harder for customers to pay.

For a restaurant, however, one of the biggest concerns is refrigeration.

Meat, fish, dairy products and other perishable foods need to remain properly chilled or frozen. A prolonged

interruption can therefore turn a power cut into a potential stock-loss problem.

Emmanuel says the disruption can affect both the ability to serve customers and the money invested in food inventory.

For small restaurants operating on tight margins, losing a day's business can be particularly difficult.

‘Frozen fish and chicken thaw rapidly’

For Aunty B, popularly known as Grandma, the stakes are even higher.

She operates a cold store at Okponpo Village in Accra, where her business depends almost entirely on keeping

frozen products cold.

When electricity fails, she says, frozen fish, chicken and sausages begin to thaw.

“Perishable items like frozen fish, chicken, and sausages thaw rapidly when industrial freezers stop,” she says.

If an outage lasts too long, she may have little choice but to dispose of spoiled goods or sell them cheaply for animal feed.

She says unexpected outages make the situation worse because there may not be enough warning to move stock elsewhere.

“Unannounced cuts leave no time to move stock to safer locations,” she says.

The cost of keeping the freezers running

A generator can provide a lifeline, but it comes with its own cost.

Grandmaa says running heavy-duty generators for long periods requires large amounts of fuel, eating into the profits of small businesses.

“Buying fuel daily drains profit margins much faster than paying standard monthly electricity tariffs,” she says.

For some operators, the additional cost can eventually feed into the price of goods as they try to recover the money spent on fuel.

And the financial pressure does not necessarily end when the electricity returns.

Grandmaa says repeated power cuts and sudden changes in supply can put strain on refrigeration equipment, potentially resulting in expensive repairs or replacement.

For a small business, an unexpected equipment failure can become another major financial burden.

When customers start looking elsewhere

There is also a less visible cost.

A business that cannot guarantee that its products will remain properly frozen may lose customers.

Grandmaa says repeated disruptions can affect customers' confidence, particularly when buyers find suppliers with more reliable power.

For businesses already dealing with rising operating costs, losing regular customers can be difficult to recover from.

The same principle applies to other small businesses.

For Enyonam, the loss is immediate: customers who cannot get their hair done because the equipment cannot operate may simply stay away.

For Emmanuel's restaurant, customers who arrive to find food service disrupted may also choose another establishment.

For Grandmaa, the concern is that the stock she has already paid for could become unsellable.

More than an inconvenience

Ghana's latest power disruption therefore raises a question that goes beyond when electricity will return.

How much does an outage actually cost the businesses that depend on the national grid?

The answer varies.

For some, it may mean several hours without customers. For others, it may mean fuel costs, interrupted

production or damaged equipment.

For cold-store operators, the financial risk can be even greater because their stock can deteriorate if adequate

refrigeration cannot be maintained.

GRIDCo has attributed Thursday's outage to a fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission line and says its

engineers are working to restore the remaining affected customers.

The company has apologised for the disruption and asked customers for patience.

But for businesses such as Enyonam's hair salon, Emmanuel's restaurant and Grandmaa's cold store, the issue is not simply whether the lights eventually come back on.

It is what they lose while they are off.

For a business owner operating on a narrow margin, a power cut can mean a day without customers, food that

cannot be sold, fuel that was never budgeted for or equipment that needs repairing.

And when outages recur, those costs can accumulate.