By Seth Danquah
Takoradi, Sept. 30, GNA – Mr Adolf Nii Ashong, Manager, Electricity and Natural Gas Directorate of the Energy Commission has called on Electricians to use standard and quality materials in their works to avoid disaster.
He said that the Ghana Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2008) was passed into law by the Parliament to provide the framework to regulate professionals who engaged in electrical wiring and installation works in the country and continued to record low-standard works.
Mr Ashong said this during the 17th Electrical Wiring Certificate Awards Ceremony in Takoradi for 108 licensed electrical wiring artisans in the Western and Central Regions.
The event jointly organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the Energy Commission was on the theme, “Supporting U-start, Building and Empowering Entrepreneurs.”
The programme sought to empower the youth in electrical installation and find innovative ways to create job opportunities for the graduands.
Mr Ashong said the theme was an indication of how the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission were laying notable emphasis on working within the regulated standards.
He said it was also to help create a pool of jobs with laid down emphatic procedures that protected the customer and create opportunities for the youth in electrical wiring even beyond the borders of the country.
Mr Ashong said it was critical to ensure that the training given to the electrical wiring graduates became fruitful and their services also strictly regularised to provide secured electrical layouts for homes and other institutions.
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah in an address read on his behalf, said for the economy to continue to deliver shared prosperity and fulfilling opportunities for work, it was essential that innovative ideas and new ways of working were constantly introduced and tested in the marketplace.
He commended the Energy Commission for passing the Electrical Wiring Regulations Law (L.I. 2008), and for its partnership in training professional artisans which have produced 13,266 professionals nationwide which would help ensure standards.
“The Ghana Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2008) which was passed into law by the Parliament of Ghana aims at providing the framework to regulate professionals who engaged in electrical wiring and installation works.,”
He urged stakeholders and potential investors to come on board to partner and work with the Energy Commission and the Government to improve access to affordable and reliable electricity.
Mr Isaac Yankson, Deputy Director of Trade and Industry for the Western Region was hopeful that the regulations and standards set for the members of the electrical wiring associations would strictly be enacted to ensure sanity and provision of installation works that befit the standards of the Energy Commission.
He said MoTI would consistently work with the Energy Commission to bring affordable and reliable energy supply to industries, especially green energy technologies needed to reduce the cost of energy supply.
Mr Yankson said the programme would enable beneficiaries to ensure that they worked within the limits of the regulations guiding their work so that all households and industrial users would appreciate their services.
According to him, the awarded certificates need to be used within the rules of the Energy Commission and urged all successful awardees to find innovative ways of rendering their services.
He said it was important to note that building the capacities of the youth in electrical wiring had come at the right time when the continent initiated the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which is a trading block for Africa’s 54 countries with a population of 1.3 billion, with a combined GDP of USD$ 3.4trillion.
Mr Yankson indicated that trade in services was one of the key programmes under the AfCFTA and expected to take the form of the four modes of supply under the World Trade Organization (WTO) concept.
GNA