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Urban Studies
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Everyday contours and politics of  Urban Studies Journal Limited 2021Article reuse guidelines:
infrastructure: Informal governance sagepub.com/journals-permissionsDOI: 10.1177/00420980211030155
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of electricity access in urban Ghana
Ebenezer F Amankwaa
University of Ghana, Ghana
Katherine V Gough
Loughborough University, UK
Abstract
This article contributes to shaping the discourse on unequal geographies of infrastructure and
governance in the global South, opening up new ways of thinking through politics, practices and
modalities of power. Conceptually, informality, governance and everyday urbanism are drawn on
to unpack how the formal encounters the informal in ways that (re)configure infrastructure geo-
graphies and governance practices. This conceptual framing is empirically employed through an
analysis of electricity access in Accra, Ghana, highlighting how residents navigate unequal electric-
ity topographies, engage in self-help initiatives, and negotiate informal networks and formal gov-
ernance practices. The spatiality of the electricity infrastructure has created inequity and
opportunities for exploitation by ‘power-owners’ and ‘power-agents’ who control and manage
the electricity distribution network and, in turn, privately supply power. Electricity connections
are negotiated, access is monetised and illegality excused on grounds of good-neighbourliness,
thereby producing and perpetuating everyday politics of ‘making do’. Community movements,
everyday acts of improvisation, and incremental modifications are shown to influence the work-
ings of formal institutions of government and shape uneven power relations and experiences of
inequality. Such an understanding of how marginalised residents navigate the electricity topogra-
phies of Accra reveals a more nuanced politics of infrastructure access, which reflects the com-
plex realities of hybridised modalities of governance and the multiple everyday dimensions of
power that shape urban space. The article concludes that informality should not be recognised as
failure but as a sphere of opportunity, innovation and transition.
Keywords
Abuja, Accra, electricity, everyday urbanism, governance, informal settlement, informality
Corresponding author:
Ebenezer F Amankwaa, Department of Geography and
Resource Development, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG
59, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Emails: efamankwaa@ug.edu.gh; ebenchief@yahoo.com
2 Urban Studies 00(0)
 (Accra) 
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 (Abuja)  (Accra)
Received January 2020; accepted June 2021
Introduction and experiences of urban service provision
and how these can exacerbate informality,
Urban environments are critical for govern- inequality and poverty (McFarlane et al.,
ance and infrastructure delivery, yet across 2017; Pieterse, 2011; Rateau and Choplin,
the global South many urban residents do 2021; Roy, 2009, 2011). Focusing on urban
not have access to reliable, affordable and Ghana, this article analyses electricity access,
inclusive services. For inhabitants of infor- highlighting how residents navigate unequal
mal settlements, life is a shared experience of electricity topographies, engage in self-help
perpetual lack of basic infrastructure, subtle initiatives, and negotiate informal networks
exploitation by well-resourced/connected and formal channels of governance prac-
residents, relentless intimidation of ejection, tices. We demonstrate how analysing the
multifarious land and resource disputes, and everyday practices by which marginalised
a feeling that the settlement’s future is not residents navigate the geographies of urban
for them (McFarlane and Silver, 2017a; services can provide a more nuanced politics
Roy, 2009; Watson, 2009). Consequently, of electricity access that mirrors the complex
urban residents establish their own forms of realities of hybridised forms of governance
self-governance, which sometimes usurp and the multiple everyday modalities of
government-provided public services, thus power that operate to shape urban space in
contributing to the shaping and re-making contemporary cities. Consequently, we pro-
of urban infrastructure agendas (Asher and mote a deeper understanding of how the
Ojeda, 2009; Gough, 1999; Oteng-Ababio everyday is a sphere where power is diffuse
et al., 2017b; Pilo, 2021). and relational, and can become commodi-
It is against this backdrop that scholars fied through the commercialisation of infra-
have interrogated the unequal geographies structure provision.
Amankwaa and Gough 3
In many sub-Saharan African (SSA) Two key contributions are made to exist-
countries, the demand for electricity exceeds ing scholarship. First, we inform debates on
supply resulting in pervasive challenges informality and infrastructural governance,
regarding reliability, quality and affordabil- advancing the growing literature that exam-
ity (World Bank and International Energy ines informality, infrastructure politics and
Agency, 2015). Ghana fares rather better the making of everyday life in economically
than most SSA countries, with around 80% marginal urban contexts in the global South
of the total population and 90% of urban (cf. McFarlane and Silver, 2017a, 2017b;
inhabitants reportedly having access to elec- Pilo, 2021; Simone, 2010). Second, we pro-
tricity,1 though as Satterthwaite (2003) has vide an illuminating example of the chal-
long argued, such figures are based on inac- lenges associated with gaining access to
curate or ‘nonsense’ statistics, hence over- electricity in low-income settlements, which
state access to urban services. Even for tend to overlook the power relations and
households with electricity, the supply can everyday politics (i.e. the governance, dis-
be erratic with frequent blackouts and power courses and practices of actors that seek
rationing that incur costs associated with the control and access) operating within com-
disruption of productive activities and dam- munities. We argue that informality exists
age to equipment (Amankwaa, 2017). A new not as an isolated or specific sector of infra-
word ‘dumsor’ has been added to daily voca- structural service provision but rather as
bulary in Ghana, which refers to the persis- unregulated practices carried out by both
tent, irregular and unpredictable electricity state and non-state actors; an informal gov-
outage caused by power supply shortage. ernance system increases marginality for
Although Ghana committed to universal some while emboldening those with
electricity access by 2020, it did not have the decision-making power. By so doing, we
capacity to meet this target nor ensure that shed light on what ‘informal’ electricity
the supply is reliable and affordable.2 infrastructure is, how it is made to function,
This article addresses two core questions: and the complex everyday politics it reflects
Who are the key actors in informal electric- and reproduces for the urban poor.
ity governance and how do they attain such The next section presents the theoretical
positions? How do marginalised residents framework for the article, bringing together
navigate the multiple dimensions of every- the concepts of informality, governance and
day electricity access and what are the conse- everyday urbanism. The study area and
quences for infrastructural governance? The methods used in collecting the data are then
analysis draws on a study conducted in outlined. Subsequently, the first empirical
Abuja, an informal settlement in Accra, section reveals the key actors and associated
Ghana, to ascertain how in gaining access to power relations, through analysing the differ-
electricity, residents engage in everyday acts entiated practices of electricity provision in
of improvisation and negotiate formal and Abuja. This is followed by a discussion of the
informal domains of governance practices, contours of everyday electricity access, which
which often produce uneven power relations. we argue produces complex, overlapping, and
The need to interrogate informality and often dichotomous fields of informal govern-
everyday activities within the production of ance practices. The conclusion draws together
uneven electricity topographies, in a way that the key arguments, highlighting our contribu-
reflects a more diverse set of practices and tion to research on informality and infrastruc-
politics, is emphasised (Silver, 2014). tural governance.
4 Urban Studies 00(0)
Informality, governance and shifts, tactics and making do, raising ques-
everyday urbanism tions about who owns the future city and
how it should be governed. As Baptista
Conceptual discussions of informality have (2019) highlights, states seek to govern
been ongoing ever since the term was popu- informality in a range of ways including
larised by the International Labour through: elimination, such as slum clearance
Organization (ILO) in the early 1970s. and squatter evictions; disconnection of ille-
These have ranged from seeing informality gal service connections, often justified by
as spatial or economic categories outside for- ‘othering’ narratives of underserving sub-
mal state control (Hart, 1973; Turner, 1978), jects (see Ghertner, 2012); normalisation, for
to perspectives that seek to move beyond example, retrofitting, slum upgrading, land
those dichotomies, either by assuming a con- titling, and extension of formal service con-
tinuum between informal and formal nections by formalising contested spaces and
(Bromley, 1978), or by viewing informality activities (see Kamete, 2013); or through tol-
as a mode of regulation (Castells and Portes, eration, such as mediated and negotiated
1989). More recently, scholars such as access to land, housing, basic urban services,
Ananya Roy have claimed that urban work and other rights as a means of sustain-
informality should be understood as ‘a heur- ing power relations (see Roy and AlSayyad,
istic device that uncovers the ever-shifting 2004). Informality is governed by strategies
urban relationship between the legal and ille- that aim to formalise the informal and by
gal, legitimate and illegitimate, authorised attempts to perpetuate informality as ‘a
and unauthorised’ (Roy, 2011: 233). This form of structural power or rationality of
viewpoint disconnects informality from government’ (Baptista, 2019: 513).
underdevelopment, poverty, and illegality, In many low-income urban areas of SSA,
emphasising its prevalence and shifting qual- informality is widespread and accounts for
ity. In this article we conceive of informality the greater share of service provision
as transcending the domain of state regula- (Amankwaa et al., 2014; Obeng-Odoom,
tion but do not accept a binary understand- 2013; Oteng-Ababio et al., 2017a). As noted
ing that separates informality from formal by Simon (2015), in such contexts informal-
activities (see Pieterse, 2011). We posit that ity is normal and familiar, not deviant, ille-
informality manifests in spheres charac- gal and unnatural. As both informality and
terised by disparity between governance formality traverse through the multiple
domains and actual practice. topographies of city life and infrastructure
The various ways of conceptualising provision, incorporating informality lays the
informality have heightened interest and foundation for inclusive urban governance
proved a fertile analytical ground for inter- by closing gaps and delivering services in a
rogating and critiquing how it is theorised resilient, transparent and sustainable man-
and governed (Baptista, 2019). In the intro- ner. Stacey and Lund (2016), for instance,
duction to a special issue of Urban Studies have shown how the provision of basic ser-
‘Transcending (in)formal urbanism’, vices by informal institutions influences the
Michele et al. (2019) contest how informal workings of formal institutions of govern-
urbanism has been conceptualised and argue ment, albeit with the caveat that such rela-
for a more inclusive theorisation that trans- tionships often shift back and forth between
cends dualisms. Recently, Carrieri et al. vilification, tacit acceptance and productive
(2021) and Sadowski (2021) have contribu- cooperation. Part of this complex network of
ted to the ongoing debates about power- governance is an underlying, widely held
Amankwaa and Gough 5
notion that the absence of government- We recognise the plethora of approaches
provided services promotes people’s ingenuity to power, including socio-technical systems
whereby they activate their agency and lever- as a confluence of social forces and material
age networks beyond their own doorsteps, infrastructure production (see Gaventa,
thus upholding common standards that make 1980; Rowland and Passoth, 2015), (re)pro-
life bearable (Perry and Atherton, 2017). In duction of state power and control through
this vein, Zug and Graefe (2014) highlight the infrastructure (see Judge, 1995; MacLean
dense networks of reciprocity, informal prac- et al., 2016b), or powershift frameworks for
tices, care, debt, gifts and favours, which arise assessing the politics of sustainability transi-
in such situations. tions (see Brisbois, 2019; Hess, 2018). Here
Stacey and Lund’s (2016) study of gov- we approach power through the lens of
ernance in an informal settlement in Accra recent scholarship on the reproduction of
shows how the forging of an endearing yet control, domination and uneven economic
enabling social contract in Old Fadama power in ‘everyday’ relations (Baker et al.,
defies conventional conceptualisations of 2021; Cornea et al., 2016; Truelove, 2021;
such areas as inherently poor, chaotic, Truelove and Cornea, 2021). Our interest in
powerless or voiceless. They argue that the everyday power relations is fundamentally
structuration of governance is ‘enmeshed in ingrained in the nuanced ways that power
and characterised by a distinction between works and is mobilised in societies beyond
locally produced institutions that sporadi- more conventionally conceptualised struc-
cally enjoy the power to govern but do not tural forms and practices of power. By doing
have the legal backing to exercise authority, so, we contribute to discourses on the con-
and the institutions of government with the tested, negotiated and situated nature of
formal authority to rule but which often lack everyday urban governance, the multiple
the power to do so’ (Stacey and Lund, 2016: ways that politics becomes spatialised, and
592). Research has revealed the increasing how power (re)shapes urban infrastructures
fluidity and hybridity between informal and and spaces in contemporary cities (Truelove
formal channels of governance, and how this and Cornea, 2021). We now turn to every-
provides authority and legitimacy for some day urbanism, which in conjunction with
community actors (cf. Ghertner, 2017; urban informality and infrastructural gov-
Truelove and Cornea, 2021). For example, a ernance, helps us unpack how the multiple
wide variety of heterogeneous infrastructural modalities of power shape informality and
and governance configurations exist that the diverse infrastructural configurations
often go ‘beyond the network’ and thus which perpetuate inequality. This further
require thinking through complex assem- provides an important understanding of
blages of political actors and informal insti- how macro structures of power are modi-
tutions (McFarlane and Silver, 2017a; fied, circumvented and diffused.
Oteng-Ababio et al., 2017a, 2017b; Everyday urbanism, which has become a
Truelove, 2019). Such research has called for dominant lens through which to research
approaches that bring attention to the urban life and conceptualise everyday gov-
scales, domains, and practices of the every- ernance, uses a process-oriented analysis to
day to gain new insights into the dynamics understand how cities work and what drives
of power and inequality that permeate urban urban transformation by leveraging the rich-
environments. ness of the diverse everyday practices of
6 Urban Studies 00(0)
urban dwellers as the basis for theorisation of electricity access in Abuja. Although at
(Alda-Vidal et al., 2018; Truelove and the time of the fieldwork Abuja was under
Cornea, 2021). Analyses of access to services the jurisdiction of the Accra Metropolitan
emphasise the various everyday practices of Assembly (AMA), AMA has subsequently
service users and the co-production of hybrid been fragmented and Abuja now forms part
service provision systems, which often run of Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly
outside, or alongside, the centralised net- (KKMA). Municipal Assemblies form part
work. While there have been numerous stud- of the local governance system in Ghana,
ies on the production, consolidation and which consists of a four-tier structure: 16
contestation of the urban water supply Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) on
(Peloso and Harris, 2017; Peloso and the first tier; six Metropolitan, 56 Municipal
Morinville, 2014), in recent years electricity and 154 District Assemblies (MMDAs) on
has also come into focus. Baptista (2019), the second tier; over 1300 Urban, Town,
Pilo (2021) and Smith (2019) adopt a socio- Zonal or Area Councils on the third tier;
technical approach to electricity infrastruc- and more than 16,000 Unit Committees on
ture in Maputo, Rio de Janeiro and Kisumu/ the fourth tier. District Assemblies operate
Kitale respectively, showing how utilities as the basic unit of the local government sys-
engage with informality to produce access to tem and have legislative and executive pow-
formal electricity networks through everyday ers (Kpentey, 2019). Unit Committees have
practices of maintenance and repair, not more than 15 members, of which 10 are
landlord-tenant relations and communal elected members and five appointed. Even
metre sharing, which create new kinds of though they do not have legislative powers,
politics. These studies bring a situated Unit Committees provide a structured
approach to everyday urbanism and reveal mechanism of representation, participation
how urban inequalities are perpetuated not and accountability for their constituents,
only through the production of infrastruc- and work closely with District Assemblies.
ture but through its daily operation, impro- Both the District Assemblies and Unit
visation and governance. Committees face challenges of political and
In this article we bring together informal- fiscal autonomy (Obeng-Odoom, 2013).
ity, governance and everyday urbanism to Alongside the formal local governance struc-
analyse the everyday practices of informal ture, a range of individuals play important
electricity providers and users to show how roles within communities, including tradi-
most electricity infrastructure is incremental, tional authorities, especially chiefs and
co-produced, flexible and always in the mak- elders, community leaders and opinion
ing. We emphasise the power relations that leaders.
work to extend and alter the utility, which The Electricity Company of Ghana
shape how and to whom electricity is accessi- (ECG) is responsible for supplying electricity
ble, on whose terms and at what cost. First, to all urban communities in southern
however, we present the background to gov- Ghana. The cost of service connection is
ernance and electricity provision in Ghana borne by consumers. Per ECG’s connection
and the methodology of our study. policy, a prospective client must obtain an
application form at a cost of GH¢10 ($1.7
Study area and methodology USD) and return the completed form with
several documents for registration: building
The empirical data to address the questions permit of the premises or a site plan; instal-
posed in this article are drawn from a study lation completion certificate signed by a
Amankwaa and Gough 7
licenced electrician; and proof of identity. adjacent to Kantamanto market, which is
Once these have been accepted, a date is the hub of second-hand clothing in Accra
fixed for inspection, following which a quo- (see Figure 1). Officially Abuja is not recog-
tation is prepared for the District Manager nised as a residential zone due to land tenure
to approve and sign. Subject to full pay- issues, making it a contested space in which
ment, a tentative date for the installation is newcomers to the city can find cheaper
given, officially within three to four weeks, sources of housing, connections to kin, and
however, this can take more than three economic opportunities. Until the early
months. The up-front payment ranges from 1980s, Abuja was inhabited by workers of
GH¢280–GH¢400 ($48–69 USD) for a the now defunct GRC. Most workers relo-
single-phased metre, depending on the dis- cated following the company’s collapse, with
tance from the nearest pole to the property, many selling their land titles primarily to
or from GH¢2400 to GH¢4200 ($412–720 Ghanaian migrants who had returned from
USD) where pole extensions are needed. Abuja in Nigeria after being expelled in
The cost of acquiring a separate metre 1983, which is how the settlement gained its
ranges from GH¢82 to GH¢176 ($14–30 name. Subsequently Abuja became a popu-
USD). The process is not only frustrating lar area due to affordable rent, and proxim-
and time consuming for customers but ity to the city centre and central markets
costly, since they usually have to pay more that provide income-generating opportuni-
than the official charges. As we show below ties. An estimated 8000 people live in Abuja,
in relation to Abuja, the early settlers living earning their living primarily from business
around the Railway Quarters (old site), activities, such as second-hand clothing
which is a relatively serviced area, largely remaking and rebranding, and food vending
have formal electricity connections because (Amankwaa, 2016). Abuja hosts a transport
they have some form of tenure and pay land terminal and a mix of residential and com-
rent to the Ghana Railway Corporation mercial structures, with many hawkers
(GRC) who in turn pay property rates to the (street traders) as well as home-based
local assembly. Residents in the new site businesses.
often extend connections from the infra- Although the state has not provided pub-
structure in the old site, which sometimes lic services in most parts of Abuja, the early
involves using informal/illegal mechanisms. settlers who wield power locally have man-
Thus, unlike formally established settle- aged to extend electricity and water supply
ments, residents in informal settlements use to the area, resulting in patchwork informal
non-state actors to provide electricity despite infrastructure. The electricity supply is fre-
official policy stipulating that customers quently subject to what is colloquially
shall not: intentionally interfere or know- known as ‘light off’ or ‘dumsor’, which is
ingly allow interference with the supplier’s more severe than most other places in Accra
distribution system or metre; connect supply due to Abuja’s precarious nature. The fre-
which is not passed through a metre or tam- quent ‘light off’, alongside metre overloads
per with a metre; connect or permit to be (whereby multiple users tap from a single
connected from the applicant’s premises to metre) and the use of candles, have contribu-
other premises, without the prior consent of ted to recurrent fire outbreaks, most recently
the supplier. in 2013 and 2015. These events have bol-
The emphasis here is on Abuja, an stered attempts by city authorities to demol-
informal settlement located in the heart of ish Abuja. As threats of demolition and
Accra in a commercial/industrial zone eviction continue to cast a long shadow over
8 Urban Studies 00(0)
Figure 1. Map of the study area.
the settlement’s future, construction in structured interviews, focus group discus-
Abuja has tended to be small scale, primar- sions and participant observation. Such
ily consisting of temporary wooden struc- methodological plurality mimics approaches
tures for housing (Amankwaa, 2016). aimed at generating insights on precarious
A mixed-methods approach was adopted urban lives through triangulation of data
consisting of a questionnaire survey, semi- (see Esson et al., 2016, 2020; Gough et al.,
Amankwaa and Gough 9
2016; Yankson et al., 2017). The research Key actors and power relations in
design was implemented in three stages. electricity provision
First, a reconnaissance survey facilitated
stratified sampling of residential units into This section focuses on identifying the key
two clusters, one a relatively well-serviced actors involved in providing and overseeing
old site (Cluster 1) and the other a less- the electricity infrastructure in Abuja and
serviced new site (Cluster 2). Cluster 1 how they attain such positions. It highlights
includes the area close to the railway lines how, through self-help initiatives and
and the adjacent police quarters, where early (in)formal networks, marginalised residents
settlers who have titles from GRC live in navigate unequal topographies of electricity
semi-block and wooden buildings. In con- access. Residents of Abuja have managed to
trast, Cluster 2 is located in the central, rap- extend connections from Accra’s electricity
idly developing area with many make-shift infrastructure network to part of the settle-
wooden structures inhabited by migrants ment through self-help community move-
who rent rooms or share space in dormitory- ments. The early settlers live predominantly
like rooms. in Cluster 1 and have some form of tenancy
In the second stage, using a systematic agreement with GRC. In close collaboration
sampling technique, every fifth house/struc- with the assemblyman/woman and Unit
ture beginning from a random starting point Committee members, the early settlers came
was selected until a pre-determined sample together in the 1990s to buy electricity poles
size of 50 was reached in each cluster (i.e. and cables to provide electricity to the area,
100 in total). In addition, four focus group including extending supply to Cluster 2, the
discussions (male youth, female youth, rapidly developing area. In order to gain
elderly males and elderly females) lasting access to this electricity supply, residents
around 60–90 minutes were conducted with had to pay an amount to a community
groups of six to eight participants. Six semi- leader, which was set aside to buy electric
structured in-depth interviews, lasting 30–60 cables for future extensions, maintenance
minutes, were conducted with Unit and upgrades. Thus, in Abuja Old Site
Committee members, including an assembly- (Cluster 1) there is an electricity transformer,
woman, opinion leader, Zongo chief and transmission poles and lines, and residents
women’s group leader. This representation generally use rechargeable lamps. In the
reflects Ghana’s local governance architec- New Site (Cluster 2), where electricity was
ture at the community level. subsequently extended, the few metres have
In the final stage, transect walks to map multiple connections and many households
out infrastructure provision, and ‘follow- cope by relying on candles, torches, kerosene
along participant observation’ (Finlay and lamps, and at times private generators to
Bowman, 2016) were conducted. All inter- power their businesses.
views were taped and transcribed verbatim This form of electricity infrastructure
by the authors, where necessary translating connection ‘from below’, involving lever-
from Twi into English. The transcripts were aging different actors and networks as well
subsequently analysed using NVivo coding as formal and informal institutions, results
to identify categories, themes and trends. in residents of Abuja becoming connected to
The terminologies presented in our analysis electricity in a splintered fashion (Coutard,
emerged from our discussions with partici- 2008; Dawson, 2021), with many uncertain-
pants about their negotiations with the ties and negotiations occurring outside the
everyday politics of urban life. watch of the metre provider/owner. The
10 Urban Studies 00(0)
questionnaire survey showed that only 17% managed to build up social capital within
of households (primarily in Cluster 1) have and outside the settlement.
their own separate connection, with just over Power-owners and their power-agents
half (54% from both clusters) accessing elec- have taken on a broader community role
tricity via a shared house/shop metered con- beyond mediating access to metres/connec-
nection. Of the remaining households, 20% tions, including liaising selectively with the
tap power from a neighbour outside their local authority, the electricity provider, and
residence/shop, while 9% have no connec- initiating and navigating many facets of com-
tion resorting to alternative sources of light- munity governance. Consequently, the terms
ing. These multiple modalities of electricity ‘power-owners’ and ‘power-agents’, at times
connection reflect the hybrid arrangements used by residents themselves, refer to their
that emerge between and across actors, and superior tenure position and, more impor-
the different negotiations that operate to tantly, their disproportionate power in rela-
shape the electricity infrastructure. Two key tion to electricity provision. While the power-
power governance actors emerged in this owners act as gatekeepers to the physical
process, namely, ‘power-owners’ and infrastructure, the power-agents serve as
‘power-agents’. overseers in charge of everyday negotiations
Power-owners are individuals who have and the politics of electricity access at the
managed to claim ownership of the electric- household and business level, regarding who
ity infrastructure through established rela- accesses power, on what terms, at what cost
tionships with the Electricity Company of and for how long. The power-owners have
Ghana (ECG). Their power stems from more power, however, because they deter-
determining who connects to the main trans- mine the number of power-agents who can
mission line, for what purpose and the cost connect to the main electricity grid. The roles
of the connection. They are mostly middle- of power-owners and power-agents, however,
aged men and women who have occupancy do not in any way imply that the official ser-
permits3 from GRC or early settlers who vice provider ECG has ceded, or even tacitly
became landlords after relocating elsewhere accepted, ownership of part of the distribu-
but still pay rent to GRC. Due to their status tion network to community members.
as long-time owners and well-resourced/con- Power-owners are expected to oversee the
nected residents, they wield influence and activities of power-agents to avoid transmis-
use their connections with people in author- sion overload but the relationship can be
ity to acquire separate metered connections. tricky as most power-agents clandestinely
Power-agents act as intermediaries to aid install additional metres over and above the
individuals in securing connections to the ‘official’ ones. This allows them to serve
transmission lines from the power-owners many more residents under the cover of
and help in acquiring private metres from good-neighbourliness, even though this is
ECG to connect and sell power to other resi- not done without monetary motivations.
dents. They are primarily mid-to-late settlers The quote below from a power agent
who have secured residential and/or working describes how they connect to the grid and
spaces from the early settlers. The power- sell power to residents:
agents can be portrayed as opportunistic res-
idents who, through family ties, community- If you are free [have good contacts] with the
based group affiliations, successful business top people, I mean Assemblywoman or Alhaji
activities and political connections, have [unit committee member] then it’s easy to get a
Amankwaa and Gough 11
meter or be connected to one. They will call system, whereby the bill is collectively paid
the ECG official to come and inspect your by tenants resulting in free electricity for
premises. After you’ve paid they’ll fix a date themselves. There is also an economic disin-
for the meter installation. Usually it takes 6 centive for tenants to have separate metres
months but if you’re lucky then 3 months. due to precarious tenancy arrangements
.Once you get connected, people will start
characterised by short notice evictions at the
coming to you for power. So we charge them
connection fee then ask our local electricians landlord’s discretion. A young man who
4
here to do the extension work after they’ve resides with a friend in a container shop
bought the cable and paid workmanship. explained how:
(Male participant, elderly focus group)
These days it’s not easy to get a room and
This presentation of the key actors involved your money is so little you don’t dare to get a
in electricity supply in Abuja shows the multi- meter. Even if you do, the process is too long.
ple scales at which the provision of electricity Everyone wants money and who are you to
tell the landlord or the friend you are perching
infrastructures is determined. Both the power-
[residing] with that you want to get your own
owners and power-agents have to negotiate
meter, or ask him to show you the bill before
formal channels and leverage informal net- paying? You must have secured a new room
works, including the District Assembly, ser- to do that because he will eject you at the
vice provider (ECG), community leaders, slightest provocation. (Male participant, youth
electricians and prepaid vendors, to gain focus group)
access to the electricity distribution network
and metre connections. This illustrates the The politicisation and commercialisation of
diverse practices of urban-dwellers who must the electricity infrastructure, therefore, con-
intervene to acquire, make and re-make criti- signs residents to the mercy of power-owners
cal infrastructures through mutual improvisa- and power-agents. Residents who resort to
tion and local political arrangements tapping power from a neighbour outside
(McFarlane, 2018; Roy, 2009). Non-state their dwelling negotiate with the metre
actors thus not only influence the state’s owner/user and contribute to the purchasing
informal decision-making practices regarding of prepaid credit. One resident who runs a
electricity infrastructure but also exert power shop shared her frustration at having to
over on-the-ground electricity provisioning, navigate multiple terrains to access electric-
revealing their influence on both the state and ity amid manipulation, intermittent supply,
localised forms of everyday electricity politics high cost and exploitation:
(Truelove and Cornea, 2021).
The analysis further shows how strategies The neighbours around refused to help so I
to access services are being created and had to extend power from an in-law’s line at
manipulated by well-resourced/connected the other end. Not only was the cable cost
residents (Amankwaa, 2016; McFarlane high, I suffer power cuts anytime there is a
et al., 2017), preventing less powerful newco- strong wind or downpour as the electrician
mers from gaining their own connection. joined pieces of wires together. .The ‘dumsor’
[light off] is too much and the current is always
With the rising number of tenant households
low. Too many people are on the line. At my
in Accra (Appeaning Addo, 2016), landlords husband’s drinking bar, where he taps from a
have the autonomy to decide whether to line nearby, the owner collects money every
allow a private metre installation in their other day to buy prepaid credit. We know he
residence. Their decision is partly fuelled by cheats us but what can we do? (Female partici-
the profit they can make using the shared pant, elderly focus group)
12 Urban Studies 00(0)
Residents with no form of electricity access, exposed wiring, and look out for new struc-
who are usually caretakers5 for relatives (see tures that block pathways. In a recent devel-
Gough and Yankson, 2011), use candles for opment, the power-owners and power-
light, which poses a major concern as this is agents are leading initiatives to erect a new
believed to be the main cause of fire out- transmission pole in Cluster 2 to cater to the
breaks. A shower operator whose business needs of households and businesses in order
suffered from one such fire incidence to tackle transmission overload, which con-
recounted how: tributes to the frequent fire outbreaks and
power outages. This action has been spurred
The wooden structures and candles are the by the refusal of the city authority, Accra
main causes of fire. Because of eviction fears Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), and the
people do not build block houses. So when Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to
there is fire it spreads fast. We caution resi- officially reconnect the settlement to the
dents about candle use but some are just care-
electricity grid after a shutdown of the elec-
less. The recent one [fire] was caused by a
young girl. . A lot of structures were tricity transformer following the 2015 fire.
destroyed and properties lost. (Male partici- Despite AMA’s policy of not extending
pant, elderly focus group) basic services to settlements without legal
status or ones earmarked for demolition,
While power-owners and power-agents through negotiations and informal arrange-
enjoy access and control, and commodify ments the community leaders, power-owners
the infrastructure network, the politicisation and power-agents, and other resourceful res-
of electricity reproduces inequalities that idents have succeeded in persuading ECG
leave most residents dependent on patchy officials to install metres, fix major electrical
power supply. Such unequal electricity topo- faults, and inform GNFS if fire breaks out.
graphies are maintained and regulated by The above analysis has revealed how
power-owners and power-agents, who rein- community movements, everyday acts of
force structures that configure everyday pol- improvisation and incremental changes by
itics of ‘making do’ and reproduce relations marginalised residents to obtain essential
and networks, thereby making inequality services, even if they are illegal and tempo-
structural and diffuse. rary, cannot function without the support of
Several key functions enable power- the municipal authority. State and non-state
owners and power-agents to collectively actors engage in a range of everyday prac-
establish themselves as ‘power governance tices that reproduce their role as legitimate
actors’: they take an increasingly prominent governance actors. Such efforts by influen-
role in informal processes of mediating and tial residents reflect emerging forms of self-
governing electricity access, thus embodying made institutions in informal settlements,
and producing uneven power relations. For which endeavour to implement rules that
example, they negotiate (in)formal channels/ reproduce urban politics and local govern-
networks to install metres, follow up on ance practices (Fischer et al., 2017;
complaints of faulty metres, settle disagree- Ghertner, 2017). Negotiating access has var-
ments over rental and utility payments and ied and situated outcomes on residents and
help newcomers settle in. They also liaise state/non-state actors, worsening marginal-
with the fire service to ensure unsafe struc- ity for some, while emboldening others with
tures are demolished after fire outbreaks, increased access and decision-making power
caution people on candle use, identify fire (Cornea et al., 2016; Pilo, 2021). In her anal-
hazards including metre overloads and ysis of electricity in the favelas of Rio de
Amankwaa and Gough 13
Janeiro, Pilo (2021) shows how networked important hybrid arrangements and deci-
inequalities emerge within the grid through a sions which have to be made, such as: where
plurality of governance actors; everyday do the metres used by the power-owners and
negotiations that surround the electricity power-agents come from? Who installs the
infrastructure reveal differing rationalities at metres, connects to the grid, and fixes faults?
play, as well as produce new kinds of How do residents get credit on the metres
politics. and who do they pay top-up or their bills to?
Based on the foregoing analysis, we per- How do residents navigate the everyday poli-
ceive governance as ‘strategic actions’ or tics of power-owners and power-agents, and
interventions that address specific challenges circumvent or offset their exploitation, as
in urban spaces and the institutional frame- well as sustain relationships with them?
works and actors that support them. The complex everyday governance
Everyday governance approaches focus on regimes and social infrastructures are estab-
the interplay between actors and processes lished through the prominent roles played
which construct spheres as problematic and by community leaders, power-owners and
the day-to-day practices of actors who power-agents, and well-connected residents
endeavour to intervene in these spheres. and landlords, who collectively can be
Here, we distinguish between two facets: referred to as a ‘community movement’. By
mediation of everyday practices by ‘power- lobbying government officials, the spatial
owners’ and ‘power-agents’ (such as, making electricity infrastructure is sustained by the
connections, purchasing credit, forming pay- community through an interface of rela-
ment schemes and negotiating with the elec- tional practices and everyday politics. The
tricity company) and the strategic steering of time and work that the community move-
the community, whereby the mediators’ role ment puts into creating and sustaining social
has been extended into influencing and cre- infrastructures of electricity access are a
ating new and hybrid channels of govern- form of investment in themselves, and part
ance (including managing distribution of a wider reciprocity that is at once eco-
extensions). We now turn to discuss these nomic and political.
dimensions by exploring how the existing
system of electricity provision in Abuja Economic dimensions of access
influences the everyday dynamics of electric-
ity access and reproduces informal govern- Reciprocal exchanges form the basis of eco-
ance practices. nomic life through which people connect,
extend, credit, buy or sell electricity between
themselves. At the household level, residents
Everyday contours of electricity deploy their agency and leverage networks
access and governance practices to manoeuvre discernible inequalities and
everyday micro-politics surrounding electric-
This section focuses on the diverse practices ity infrastructure. For example, residents
and wider ways in which urban residents who obtain connections in turn allow others
manage and navigate the electricity terrain in to connect to their source through the ‘back
their everyday life. It first highlights the door’, usually to offset connection costs or
everyday contours and politics of electricity reciprocate kind gestures. The quote below
access and then illustrates how this produces from an influential opinion leader sheds light
the complex realities of hybridised modalities on these nuances and how residents take
of governance. Specifically, we interrogate advantage of the situation to make profit:
14 Urban Studies 00(0)
When I needed power, I went to a [power] experiences of access. Especially among
agent to help me. He couldn’t refuse because I young people establishing a business for the
am a Field Officer at the Water Works first time, a group of friends will typically
Department and I help people around with pool resources and networks; one person
their water issues. My wife even helped his son
negotiates to obtain the work-space, another
gain admission into high school where she is a
uses their membership of community-based
matron. . Once you are connected you make
money because people will come to you. It is associations to get electricity, and others pay
like water, it is an everyday issue so those who the bills. When metres are shared, cost shar-
own structures or shops and have meters are ing is always an issue. The comment below
really making good money. Here is a business by a resident who is connected to a power-
place and we all need electricity in one way or agent and sells power to other residents high-
the other. (Male participant, elderly focus lights the complexities, uncertainties and vig-
group) ilance associated with the shared system and
the payment modalities:
These arrangements create a network of
clandestine connections, outside the watch You first sort out the connection fee with the
of power-agents, which can extend to as owner of the line. Then you contribute to buy
many as ten users pirating from one metre the prepaid credit or pay in turns. We gauge
source. Such everyday transactions require how many units we consume in a week so in
metre owners, who allow other users to con- case someone uses additional gadgets or another
nect, to constantly monitor the supply net- person joins the line we can detect it. You pay
work to check for meter overloads and like 30 cedis [8.6 USD] a week ... If you default
payment for two times you will be disconnected
‘illegal’ extensions, and ensure that users pay
so those who can’t pay on time always negotiate
regularly. Beyond the everyday navigations, with their neighbours. Others also access power
such individuals have to strategically negoti- on a daily basis so on the days they don’t have
ate with the power-agents or residents who money or need light they get disconnected.
have facilitated their electricity connection (Female participant, elderly focus group)
to sustain their supply. Such hybrid arrange-
ments produce unequal experiences of the As this account highlights, access to power
power relations that shape everyday infra- is incremental, sporadic and highly depen-
structural governance. For example, existing dent on the ability to pay regularly, navigate
users can negotiate with power-agents and the multiple arrangements and excessive
individuals to deny access to potential users demands of power-agents and individual
who ply the same trade, or lobby for persons suppliers, and endure manipulations, disap-
from their ethnic group to get connected. pointments and exploitation. The issue of
This supports claims that in informal settle- exploitation emerged as a common concern
ments access to services is always politicised for both residents and business operators as
and reflects dominant relations of class, gen- they normally pay a flat rate or amount that
der, and ethnicity (McFarlane, 2018). is several times higher than what they actu-
In the business environment, where new ally consume. To manage this, users strategi-
operators have led to a burgeoning demand cally position themselves to negotiate the
for electricity, electricity infrastructures are different arrangements that exist between
created and reproduced in even more and across these different power-actors.
dynamic ways as business owners often make Other users change their metre or connection
multiple arrangements and leverage networks source but this has to be done with extreme
that (re)produce unequal topographies and care and tactic, as highlighted by a 31-year-
Amankwaa and Gough 15
old male participant during the youth focus reciprocal ways, which shape the social con-
group discussion: tract. Residents show their approval and
support by observing the local authority’s
Those doing the electricity business take rules and guidance including: securing a liv-
advantage of us but when it becomes too ing and working space, accessing basic infra-
much then we change the supplier. But it’s not structure and services, joining community-
every supplier you can easily change because based associations (workers’ union or ethnic
some own and control several meters and are
groups) and ensuring personal security. The
highly connected so if you are not careful they
can secretly conspire against you. quote below from a female Unit Committee
member, who resides in Abuja, gives a pic-
Electricity access is thus a manifestation of ture of how such social contracts are
everyday politics, power relations, and the established:
perpetuation of inequality as residents try to
access, negotiate and modify the power-own- The aftermath of the recent fire incidence led
to fear and suspicion of eviction threats from
ers’ and power-agents’ supply system. These
city authorities and reconnection to the elec-
findings resonate with Truelove’s (2021)
tricity mains. We finally petitioned our con-
work on water provision in Delhi’s informal stituency MP who agreed to contact the Accra
settlements, where residents come to com- Mayor on our behalf. He promised to forward
prehend local governance actors’ ‘infrastruc- electricity poles, which, together with a trans-
tural power’ over critical urban resources as former and electricity meters, were welcomed
being beyond a clear formal/informal and by residents. Their instalment will reduce fire
state/non-state divide. As her research illus- risk and improve residents’ sense of security.
trates, residents negotiate with both state . City officials acknowledge our right of resi-
and non-state actors, while these same gov- dence, [it is] only that there are no formal
establishments between us.
ernance actors strategically pivot between
state and non-state identities and responsi-
In this way, the community movement
bilities to gain further power in controlling
derives legitimacy locally by demonstrating
water infrastructures. We turn to discuss
its ability to encounter and negotiate with
these dimensions in the next section.
the District Assembly and city officials to
acquire facilities (for example, metres and
Political/governance dimensions of access transmission poles), offer services (such as
Reciprocal exchanges form the basis of metre installation and prepaid vendor
political authority and informal governance points), fix faulty transformers, and conduct
through which well-resourced/powerful resi- fire safety audits. Through informal negotia-
dents, power-owners and power-agents, and tions, residents are able to establish rights
community leaders compete and cooperate, and social contracts that underpin and
agree and disagree, build trust and compro- define what constitutes ideas of everyday
mise with city authorities. Their influence is infrastructural governance and informality
especially demonstrated during threats of through the institution of their own local
eviction and internal tensions and conflicts. authority and system of electricity provision.
In exchange for these leadership commit- Informal governance arrangements, every-
ments and services, power-owners and day acts of improvisation, and incremental
power-agents, as well as community leaders, modifications lead to the provision of basic
enjoy residents’ recognition in numerous services by marginalised residents, thereby
16 Urban Studies 00(0)
influencing the workings of formal institu- transforming and shaping unequal access to
tions of government, such as AMA, ECG services (Truelove and Cornea, 2021).
and GNFS, through installing the electricity
infrastructure, fixing major faults and gen-
eral maintenance. Informality is thus central Conclusion
to understanding how the urban poor nego- This article provides a nuanced understand-
tiate complex governance networks and ing of everyday politics and experiences of
navigate differing pathways of everyday inequality, bringing a situated approach to
access to the electricity infrastructure. infrastructural governance, with particular
The contours of electricity access thus cre- emphasis on local institutions, diverse infra-
ate spheres of everyday governance regimes structural configurations and multi-scalar
at different levels. The masses depend on the power relations. Formal and informal pro-
power governance actors to access services cesses converge to (re)configure electricity
in their everyday life and confirm the ruler- geographies and governance practices, pri-
ship of influential residents by yielding to marily through the agency of power-owners,
their authority. Those who wield influence power-agents and community leaders, who
and claim ownership over resources establish operate mainly outside, or on the margins,
their local power/authority from relations of where state institutions function. Two key
with statutory authorities. In this sense, the findings have emerged. First, through com-
topography of infrastructure provision in munity movements, everyday acts of impro-
Abuja can be portrayed as an arena of infor- visation and incremental changes,
mal mechanisms that legitimise both formal marginalised residents’ access to electricity
political institutions and self-made institu- has improved. The spatiality of the electricity
tions (Paller, 2014). Service provision, there- infrastructure, however, has created inequity
fore, involves a reciprocal dynamic that is and opportunities for exploitation by power-
central to the production of rights and owners and power-agents to control the dis-
authority between the masses and state/non- tribution network and, in turn, privately sup-
state actors (Stacey and Lund, 2016). This ply/sell power. Second, the contours of
scenario resonates with how governance electricity access have revealed residents’
practices emerge through everyday naviga- constant navigation of the electricity infra-
tions of claims to services in return for obli- structure. We have shown how electricity is
gations. Rather than dichotomous (state/ sometimes accessed on the basis of monetary
non-state, formal/informal) approaches to exchange but also through favours and per-
understanding informality and everyday ceived reciprocal exchanges, thereby produc-
urban governance, as Truelove and Cornea ing everyday politics of ‘making do’. Such
(2021) highlight, there are complex, overlap- spatial and social contours perpetuate every-
ping, and often contradictory arenas of day micro-politics and reflect how electricity
power that inform a wider understanding of connections are negotiated, access is mone-
what studies of everyday governance should tised, and illegality is excused on grounds of
incorporate. Analysing urban infrastructures good-neighbourliness.
and their everyday governance is primarily These manifestations reveal the contested,
useful for considering micro-politics, power negotiated and situated nature of everyday
relations and the (re)production of inequal- infrastructural governance, the multiple
ity because such infrastructures are both the ways that politics become spatialised, and
material expression, and often the means of how power shapes the unequal geographies
Amankwaa and Gough 17
of infrastructures (Truelove and Cornea, power relations and everyday performances,
2021). Understandings of the everyday gov- which lead to an unintended transferal of
ernance of contemporary cities must take ordinary tasks of government to informal
into account actors, practices and processes institutions. The everyday contours of elec-
that have too often been overlooked by tricity access reflect the (in)ability of differ-
scholars: the power-owners and power- ent institutions to govern, emphasising how
agents who shape patterns of inequality the governance field is fluid and hybrid, and
within the network and who act for the state is not controlled exclusively by any one
and outside of the state at different points in actor. Consequently, a focus on formal insti-
time, as well as the informal authority that tutions alone will not provide adequate
regulates between residents and city officials insight into actual governance or the realities
(cf. Kundu and Chatterjee, 2021; Pilo, of urban life (see Acheampong and Ibrahim,
2021). This links to a fundamental conun- 2016; Watson, 2009).
drum in the discourse on informality in As shown here, the multiple modalities of
African cities – states’ reluctance to engage power that shape informality and perpetuate
with residents’ experiences, concerns and inequality are important for understanding
expectations – an issue that has been com- how macro structures of power are modi-
pellingly interrogated in ongoing debates in fied, circumvented and diffused (cf. Cornea,
Urban Studies (see Carrieri et al., 2021; 2020; Merrifield, 2012). Marginalised resi-
Sadowski, 2021). The case of Abuja has illu- dents not only access electricity through for-
strated how residents collaborate with the mal domains and in collaboration with state
state to provide the type of service and sup- actors, but also through long-standing
port that individual and collective efforts everyday tactics and practices that blur and
cannot. The situation is complicated by the operate outside the realm of the state.
conflicting roles of the state: AMA is plan- Paying critical attention to everyday prac-
ning to evict and demolish parts of Abuja, tices and politics illuminates the ways com-
while at the same time officials are providing munity actors, informal authorities, and a
essential infrastructure, such as electricity multiplicity of other key intermediaries
transformers and metres. These complexities assume state-like authority and roles, fash-
underscore how the state is dialectical, oper- ioning not only the governance of key urban
ating in the shadows and creating hybrid infrastructures but how marginalised resi-
governance regimes, which reproduce uncer- dents legitimise long-term claims and rights
tainty regarding the settlement’s future (see in the city outside direct engagements with
Cobbinah and Darkwah, 2017; Sadowski, the state (Truelove and Cornea, 2021).
2021). Given that mobilisations to improve equity
Informality has been shown to be both a become manifested through the politics of
‘designation’ that helps in understanding breakdown, maintenance, and inadequacy
governance and a ‘broader logic’ that tra- of infrastructure access, informality should
verses dichotomous boundaries (Roy, 2011; be consciously incorporated into progressive
Watson, 2003). Our article advances these urban energy politics in order to promote
notions by highlighting that far from being a inclusive and affordable energy and sustain-
domain of regularised practice, informality able cities for all (cf. Kayaga et al., 2021;
manifests in spheres marked by disparity Obeng-Odoom, 2013; Watson, 2009). In this
between governance domains and actual sense, informality should be seen not as a
practice. Informality is thus understood to victim of urbanisation but as heteroge-
be heterogeneous and (re)produced through neously inherent to the urbanisation process.
18 Urban Studies 00(0)
Informality does not constitute failure or electricity network see MacLean et al. (2016a,
backwardness but a sphere of opportunity, 2016b), Silver (2016) and Adu-Gyamfi et al.
innovation and transition. (2020).
3. An occupancy permit is the tenancy agree-
ment between a resident and GRC.
Acknowledgements 4. A container shop is a metallic container used
for doing business.
The authors acknowledge valuable feedback from
5. A caretaker is a custodian who takes care of a
the three anonymous reviewers on earlier versions
property on behalf of others.
of this paper. We are greatly indebted to all our
participants who allowed us into their homes and
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