Tema, Dec. 10, GNA – Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of Sierra Leone, has paid a working visit to the head office of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) in Tema to learn the best practices of the Company.
Dr Jalloh was accompanied by the Sierra Leone Minister of Energy, High Commissioner to Ghana, Energy Experts, Economists and other dignitaries from the country’s Energy and Finance Ministries.
He said the energy sector was a priority to the Sierra Leonean government hence the engagement with the various institutions in the generation, distribution and supply chain of electricity in Ghana, especially about the Millennium Development Authority’s (MIDA) Power Compact.
He said the sector was a priority and the government was ready to invest in it because they wanted to open up the country to attract Foreign Direct Investment and to strengthen its production sector.
Dr Jalloh said Sierra Leone had received a scorecard of MIDA, making them eligible for the Power Compact and, therefore, the need to engage the experts in the sector in Ghana not to only learn from the good experiences but also the possible challenges and how to overcome it.
The Sierra Leonean Vice President said the visit would also enable them to have a deeper insight into GRIDCo’s work while learning and building collaboration to transform the energy sector not only in the two countries but also on the African continent.
He said for the past three years, the government was able to increase the country’s access to electricity from 16 per cent to 31 per cent.
According to him, the three key challenges facing the energy sector in Sierra Leone were generation, transmission and governance, which they were addressing.
Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, Board Chairman of GRIDCo, welcoming the Sierra Leonean Vice President and his entourage, said the Company was poised to exchange ideas with Sierra Leone.
He said it was his hope that the visit, which was a second from the Sierra Leonean government, would escalate the relationship between GRIDCo and the various power companies in that country.
Mr Ebenezer Essienyi, Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, on his part gave the assurance that they were ready to guide Sierra Leone to avoid the challenges Ghana went through in the energy sector.
Mr Essienyi noted that the beginning of the Power Compact was a learning process, which took a while but with tenacity it was achievable, adding that they used grants from the Compact to establish two major sub-stations.
The delegation toured the system control centre of GRIDCo as part of the visit.
GNA