According to research conducted by Databank Financial Services Ltd, the power outages compelled companies to incur unplanned operating costs of about US$62 million per month or US$744 million per annum due to the use of privately acquired generators.
The recent unpredictable power supply in the country is continually pushing the cost of doing business further up and subjecting domestic consumers to live with the discomfort of the power outages and its attendant effect on the prices of goods and services.
President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), James Asare-Agyei, in an interview said, “The continuous power outages have brought a lot of costs in respect of machine failure, workers going idle or being laid off and other challenges which must be resolved this year.” He said government should look for a medium- to long-term solution to the energy crisis so that “we come out of this yearly cyclical load shedding phenomenon which is not helping industry.”
Speaking to a small scale business owner, she said,“The power outages are really affecting my business. Because I cannot afford a generator, I have to lock up my shop whenever the lights go off and go home. This is really making me lose a lot of money and customers.”
Analysts have also pointed at the erratic power supply as being the root cause for companies like Newmont Ghana, Tema Chemical Ltd, Blue Skies Products (Ghana) Ltd, Super Paper Products Ltd, and Anglogold Ashanti for laying off employees and/or shutting down completely.
It has also been observed that some employees go to work with their shirts and dresses crumpled and in this situation, HR has very little to say.
