The growth of micro and small scale industries in the face of “dumsor” in Ghana: Perspective from cold stores and printing presses in asafo – kumasi metropolis

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International Journal of Development Research

The growth of micro and small scale industries in the face of “dumsor” in Ghana: Perspective from cold stores and printing presses in asafo – kumasi metropolis

Abstract: 

Ghana’s electricity producing trio; VRA, GRIDCO and ECG, in recent times have been plagued by certain operational, financial and logistical difficulties leading to a significant reduction its electricity generation capacity and hence, has had to endure irregular power supply for some time now. It is widely accepted in the country that “intermittent power supply” which is popularly known as “Dumsor”, is now the economy’s number oneterrorist; killing several industries and businesses that rely heavily on electrical power for operation, particularly, the micro and small scale businesses and industries that dominate and contribute significantly to employment creation and income generation. This paper thus focused on industrialists’ coping strategies to the intermittent power supply and how it affects their operations and growth. Eighty-eight (88) Cold Stores and Printing Presses were randomly sampled from the A safo industrial enclave in Kumasi for the study. Findings from the survey revealed that, though most firms adopted some copping strategies, they werenot sufficient as they in turn increased operational cost. Some industrialists had to acquired Power-plants, step-downs, reduce stock in-take, work overnight etc.Despite these efforts, “Dumsor” terrorized industrialists’ operations as firms incurred huge debts; resulting from low sales, spoilt products, machinery destructions, delay in productions and contract completion, andloss of contracts from clients. Generally, cost of operation escalated to a point that some firms had to either lay off workers or shut down their businesses completely.

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