Ghana recorded a significant nationwide power outage on the morning of August 20, 2026 β and for the National Information Technology Agency, it was a live demonstration of exactly what they would been warning about all week.
On the final day of National ICT Week 2026, NITA Board Chairperson Estelle Akofio-Sowah delivered a pointed warning: if persistent electricity disruptions continue, Ghanaians will likely pay more for internet access and digital services.
"Just this morning we had a fairly major power outage across the country, and that again affects critical infrastructure like data centres where we are hosting our equipment and our information, our data," Akofio-Sowah said.
Her comments landed at a time when consumers across the country are already demanding cheaper data and better connectivity. The irony is not subtle β the very outages making digital access unreliable are also making it more expensive to provide.
The Cost of Keeping the Lights On
The core problem, NITA says, is redundancy. Every time the national grid fails, data centres and telecom operators must fall back on backup power systems β generators, battery arrays, and other contingencies β just to keep services running. Those systems do not come cheap.
"You have to have layers and layers of redundancy. All of that puts pressure on affordability and the access that we are all aspiring to, that every Ghanaian should have affordable access," Akofio-Sowah said.
The message is clear: the financial burden of compensating for an unreliable power grid does not stay with operators. It eventually gets passed down to users in the form of higher service costs.
Over 8,000 Fibre Cuts Already This Year
Power instability is not the only infrastructure headache. NITA also disclosed that more than 8,000 fibre cuts have been recorded across Ghana so far in 2026. The agency pointed to vandalism as one of the contributing factors behind the damage.
Each cut means repairs, downtime, and additional operational costs β expenses that stack on top of the backup power burden operators are already absorbing. It is a double hit on an industry that is trying to expand access while managing rising overheads.
Gaming and Esports: A Sector Worth Watching
Despite the infrastructure concerns, National ICT Week 2026 also brought attention to one of Ghana's more surprising digital growth stories. Maximus Ametorgoh, Vice President of the Esports Association Ghana, revealed that Ghanaians spent US$121 million on video game downloads and subscriptions in 2025 alone.
"Last year, 121 million dollars were spent on video game downloads and subscriptions in Ghana. That is a growing sector," Ametorgoh said, adding that the industry opens real income opportunities for young people through the creation and sale of digital products and virtual items.
Ametorgoh described gaming and esports as "the next generation when it comes to entertainment" β and stakeholders at the event echoed that framing, urging young Ghanaians to go beyond consuming artificial intelligence and emerging technologies and instead build the skills to become creators, developers, and innovators.
Reliable Power as a Digital Economy Prerequisite
National ICT Week 2026, which wrapped up on August 20, closed with a unified call from stakeholders for greater investment in both electricity reliability and digital infrastructure. Participants argued that sectors like AI, gaming, and esports cannot reach their full potential in Ghana without a stable power supply underpinning them.
For NITA, the stakes are straightforward: unreliable electricity is not just an inconvenience. It is a structural barrier to affordable digital access β and if left unaddressed, it will show up in higher bills for every Ghanaian trying to get online.