Large parts of Ghana have been plunged into darkness after a major fault on the country’s national power grid forced several power plants to shut down.
The nationwide blackout affected the capital, Accra, the commercial city of Kumasi and much of northern Ghana, leaving millions of residents and businesses without electricity.
The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) confirmed that multiple generating plants went offline during the early hours of Wednesday, triggering widespread outages across the country.
“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 state-owned power company added that it has launched a comprehensive technical investigation to determine the exact cause of the system failure but did not provide a timeline for full restoration.
The outage severely disrupted daily life, with commuters facing transport difficulties as many mobile phones lost power, preventing users from making digital payments or booking ride-hailing services.
Businesses that depend on electricity and internet connectivity also suffered interruptions, although critical facilities such as hospitals continued operations using backup generators.
Ghana has experienced recurring electricity shortages over the years, commonly referred to locally as “dumsor,” an Akan expression meaning “on and off.”
Although the country’s power supply has become more stable in recent years, the electricity sector remains vulnerable due to ageing hydroelectric infrastructure, limited maintenance and occasional fuel supply challenges.
To meet rising demand from a growing and increasingly urban population, Ghana has expanded gas-fired electricity generation alongside its traditional hydropower plants. However, transmission failures and generation disruptions continue to pose significant risks to the national grid.
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