Accra, July 31, GNA- The 8th General Assembly of the African Electrotechnical and Standardisation Commission (AFSEC) has ended in Accra with a call on countries yet to finalise their membership to do so to harmonise and facilitate electrotechnical standards and access to electricity.
Mr Bernard Modey, the President of the AFSEC, who made the call, said a regional electricity market for member countries.
He said electricity was key in industrialisation and improvement in the delivery of various services to lift the standards of living of citizens of member countries.
“We need every country on board to harmonise our electrotechnical standards to not only facilitate trade in electro-technical goods but even more importantly, facilitate greater access to electricity through a regional electricity market that considers falling prices of renewable energy technologies to make electricity more available and at a reasonable cost,” he said.
“We sincerely hope that those countries that are yet to complete their membership will take advantage of these materials and the unique opportunity of the presence of AFSEC officials here to get all their concerns addressed so as to finalise the membership process,” he said.
Mr Modey was speaking at the recently held 8th AFSEC General Assembly in Accra to promote innovative standardisation, reorient and adapt processes for a more efficient implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and to make AFSEC more efficient and collaborative.
The meeting also aimed at making standardisation results available to experts and users in a user-friendly, fast and high-quality manner.
In a keynote address read on his behalf, the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, called for collaboration between AFSEC and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to protect the population from unsafe products and prevent various hazards through regulations and ensure compliance with standards.
“Ghana’s position as an associate member of the IEC grants us the privilege to better serve this need by actively participating in the development of standards for use of our citizens in keeping with the fast-changing technological world.
“The need to keep advancing technical standards for the development of the African continent calls for strengthened collaboration at national and international levels,” he noted.
On his part, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Prof. Alex Dodoo, said the AFSEC General Meeting would seek to achieve several feats, such as promoting innovative standardisation.
“To re-orient and adapt processes for a more efficient implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and to make AFSEC more efficient and collaborative, make standardisation results available to experts and users in a user-friendly, fast and high-quality manner,” he said.
In his remarks, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), National Committee Chairman, Bukari Danladi, expressed appreciation to AFSEC members for the confidence reposed in Ghana, and their immense support received through their experts.
“Our experts have been involved in the development and publication of three out of the current five AFSEC guides. AFSEC is being called upon; and Ghana, as a statutory member, will respond accordingly to be the beacon of the application of standards for industrialisation on the continent. We are proud that Ghana has been given the mandate to lead AFSEC,” he said.
AFSEC was established in 2008 as a subsidiary body of the African Energy Commission (AFREC) to promote everything related to electro-technical standardisation aiming to promote the electro-technical industrialisation of Africa.
AFSEC member countries, including, Ghana, Guinea, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, attended the meeting.
GNA