Ghana’s current energy crisis is stifling growth in the West African country, which for more than a decade, was lauded as one of the most promising and fastest-growing economies on the continent.

However, Ghana’s steep economic dip, high inflation and rolling blackouts suggest the era of inconsistent electricity supply between 2012 and 2016 is back, says Naaborle Sackeyfio, Associate Professor of Global and Intercultural Studies at Miami University.

Ghana is experiencing power rationing and electricity cuts, locally referred to as “dumsor”, and has lost 10% of its total electricity generation capacity. According to Sackeyfio, not only is the supply of clean energy insufficient in Ghana, but access is also uneven.

As a result, the rural poor rely on other forms of energy such as firewood or biomass to meet their needs, with biomass accounting for over 46% of energy use in Ghana’s rural areas.

The correlation between energy, economic growth and development is widely recognised, says the scientist. The ability of energy to power economies is also well known.

In her recent book on Ghana’s energy politics, Sackeyfio noted that the gaps in electricity delivery in a country typically praised for its economic success and political stability were at odds with energy abundance.

“This latest crisis could upend Ghana’s previously notable economic gains,” she warns.

“The current energy paralysis is particularly worrying for two reasons. Ghana is frequently touted as a hub for foreign investment and tourism. Neither of these can flourish without energy. Secondly, it could prompt Ghanaians to leave the country and discourage people in the diaspora from returning.”

Energy policies

According to Sackeyfio, understanding Ghana’s electricity conundrum requires a look at past policies. After the declaration of independence in 1957, the country built one of the continent’s largest dams and hydroelectric projects, the Akosombo and Volta River Project, in less than a decade.

Ghana’s progress was stalled in the following decades when a rapid succession of regimes and the ravages of structural adjustment policies in the 1980s and 1990s challenged the country’s ability to clean up decrepit energy institutions.

“Poor energy supply and demand chain dynamics or forecasting produced deeply disparate outcomes. Energy institutions did not adequately capture heightened demand in urban and rural areas,” she explains.

“This happened amid international financial institutional pressure to liberalise the energy sector as a condition for support. Utility sector reform inadvertently made it harder to supply energy to those who needed it the most. Added to this were insufficient funds and budgetary constraints which limited generation and transmission capacity.”

In 2019, half of Ghana’s electricity came from hydropower, 30% from domestically produced gas and 23% from oil, according to an International Energy Association (IEA) report. The country’s three dams, Akosombo, Kpong and Bui, have a combined installed capacity of 1,580 MW.

The Bui Dam was built by Chinese contractors in 2013 to offset poor access to electricity. Additional thermal plants constructed since 2017 used steam generated by burning oil, liquid natural gas and coal and were intended to improve disparities in electricity delivery.

However, less than 60% of the population has access to electricity, the scientist observes. This energy poverty has been acute since the 1990s. It’s especially alarming for a country that boasts a resource of a billion barrels of offshore oil, the scientist says.

The connections between rural development and electrification were noted in a Ministry of Energy report over a decade ago, writes Sackeyfio. In her work, she demonstrates that the political impetus to develop a framework that meets differing energy needs remains absent.

“In my view, the use of electricity as a tool for political parties is incompatible with addressing provision to the rural poor. Around 2.99 million people in Ghana live in extreme poverty, the majority in rural areas.”

Way forward

According to Sackeyfio, the country’s energy “futures” appear tethered to donor-driven aid and investment. Regional power-sharing arrangements like the West Africa Power Pool, intended to boost long-term energy security, have yielded little thus far. So, what is the way forward?

“In my view, a key step is to ask what kind of sustainable energy future the country wants,” she says. “Calling for donor-led and international financial assistance is not the answer. It is time to change expectations about grid connection, the preferred way of electricity delivery in Ghana, as previous studies have shown.”

Sackeyfio believes, that for Ghana, harnessing renewable energies that are sustainable, dependable and affordable, especially for the rural poor, is a key step. Another strategy is to encourage public dialogue about the country’s energy future.

“Ghana must deploy a just and inclusive energy framework that attends to its rural populations just as much as its urbanites,” she concludes.