The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has decommissioned two of its studios as the state broadcaster struggles with soaring electricity bills.
Management revealed that the Corporation spends approximately GH¢100,000 every week on power to avoid disconnection by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), despite shifting parts of its operations to solar energy.
Currently, about 30 per cent of activities at the Adjangote Transmission Line and half of operations at the Takoradi branch are powered by solar.
During a visit by Parliament’s Committee on Communication and Information, Director-General Professor Amin Alhassan explained that steps are being taken to extend solar coverage to the Kanda branch to further cut costs.
He disclosed that the financial strain has forced management to ration studio use drastically, saying one of the studios now only runs for four hours daily—from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.—before being shut down to curb bills.
He lamented that while broadcasting is capital-intensive, equipment that was once provided by government or international partners has not been supported for nearly two decades.
Prof. Alhassan further stressed that GBC’s commercial operations cannot generate sufficient revenue to purchase multimillion-dollar broadcasting equipment, making external support crucial.
“At the moment, the studio is off and will only be warmed up again tomorrow at dawn to run between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. The cost of running it for longer hours is simply unsustainable,” he noted, underscoring the urgent financial crisis confronting the national broadcaster.
