By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Sept 21, GNA – Mr Anthony Bleboo, the Director, Electricity and Natural Gas Directorate, Energy Commission (EC) and the Lead Officer of the Electrical Wiring Programme, has encouraged Ghanaians to always get certified electrician to do their household wiring.
He said people who use certified electricians after their wiring has been done are assured of their safety.
Mr Bleboo gave the caution during the 17th Electrical Wiring Certification and Awards Ceremony to honour the successful candidates on the theme: “Supporting YouStart: Building and Empowering Entrepreneurs.”
He said some electricians refuse to go through the certification process for which he believed that the only mechanism to establish that the person wiring a house was competent enough for the job was by examining them.
“The Energy Commission facilitates the examinations conducted by the Ghana Education Service and makes sure the individual has gone through the examination process and that, the individual is capable and competent to do your wiring,” he added.
The Director said when that was done the individual homeowner could be assured of safety at their various homes.
Mr Bleboo said the EC had certified 13,000 electricians and was looking forward to by 2030 to certify about 40,000.
“The target for the wiring programme is to ensure that about 40,000 electricians are certified by the year 2030, and as of now we have about 18,000,” he said.
Mr Andrew Ameckson, Programme Coordinator, YouStart Programme at the Ministry of Finance, said the programme was outlined to unleash the entrepreneurial skill among the youth.
He said statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service shows that about 19.7 per cent of the youth were unemployed, and that the youth range starts from 15 to 35 years.
“…but for the sake of the programme, we have extended the youth age between 18 to 40 years,” he added.
He said, even beyond 40 years, there was still room for the people to participate in the programme.
Mr Ameckson said annually around 109,000 graduates come out to join the unemployment rate of the youths and that government had to intervene after about 187,763 persons lost their jobs during the COVID-19.
Mr Ameckson said the programme looked forward to offering these individuals the opportunity to access finance at a lower interest rate and was targeting about a million jobs to be created within three years.
“We want to let these people have access to finance at a lower interest rate, so we are targeting about a million jobs to be created within three years.”
He emphasized that once entrepreneurs were established, it was expected that they would also employ other people who also by other means depend on entrepreneurs to succeed.
Mr Ameckson advised the graduates to take advantage of the programme to expand their businesses immediately the website goes live.
Mr Abubakar Sulemana, a Representative of the Minister for Energy, said the policy objective of the government was to ensure that within the foreseeable future, the whole country was connected and has access to electricity.
He said this was in line with the directives given by the President to ensure that Universal access to electricity was achieved.
Mr Sulemana said if there was Universal access to electricity, yet certified electricians were not available, then there would be a huge problem.
He encouraged the youth to see the programme as a viable and sustainable opportunity for employment.
Mr Oscar Amonoo-Neizer, Executive Secretary, EC, commended the graduates for passing through the examination process and coming this far.
He said, “today, we hope to enhance a bit further the environment within which all persons in the sector of electricity industry operate, as we certify more electrical wiring professionals as part of the implementation of the Electrical Wiring Regulations 2011 (L.I.2008).”
He said the Commission was always poised to partner with other public and private institutions to sustain the scheme.
GNA