The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has been forced to decommission two of its main studios and drastically cut the operational hours of others due to crippling electricity costs.
Management disclosed that the state broadcaster now spends about GH¢100,000 weekly on electricity bills to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in order to stay connected, despite ongoing efforts to shift towards solar power.
The situation came to light during an inspection by the Parliamentary Committee on Communication and Information. GBC’s Director-General, Professor Amin Alhassan, said the financial strain has pushed management to implement strict power-saving measures.
“For instance, this studio now runs only from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily. After that, we shut it down for the rest of the day to save costs,” he explained. He added that requests from staff to extend usage beyond the set hours are often denied due to the burden of electricity bills.
Currently, 30% of GBC’s operations at the Adjankote Transmission Line and 50% at its Takoradi branch have been migrated to solar power. Plans are also underway to extend solar installations to the corporation’s head office in Kanda.
Prof. Alhassan further lamented GBC’s chronic underfunding, revealing that the broadcaster has not been able to independently acquire new capital-intensive broadcasting equipment for decades, relying instead on foreign aid and occasional government intervention.
“The cost of such equipment runs into millions of dollars—well beyond what GBC can generate internally. Without external support, we simply cannot sustain full operations,” he said.
He concluded that the only immediate option available to the corporation is to reduce consumption. “If you can’t pay your bill, you cut your usage. That’s exactly what we are doing,” he noted.
