Academic calls for Power and Energy Ministries to be dissolved
Professor Domwini Dabire Kuupole, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), has said there is the need to dissolve the Power and Energy Ministries and constitute a team of experts to solve our energy concerns.
He said there was waste and duplication in the system, particularly in the creation of ministries, and tasked Ghanaians to be honest and discuss issues affecting them objectively, devoid of partisan politics.
Professor Kuupole made the call when he chaired an “experts’ forum” at the UCC on Thursday.
The event was on the theme: “Sustainable and integrated approach in solving the perennial energy crisis: issues of production and energy sources, distribution and consumption”.
The forum, attended by students, energy experts, representatives from academia and industry, was instituted by the UCC branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) in 2014.
It seeks to among others, create an independent, non-partisan and multidisciplinary discussion of relevant global, national and local issues to influence policies.
It also seeks to promote knowledge sharing in the academic community and provide evidence based independent and non-partisan policy alternatives for consideration by government.
Prof. Kuupole said it was time the mysteries surrounding the energy sector was unveiled and the true picture of the energy situation notably, the mis-match between supply and demand and other challenges in that sector, be dealt with by a technical team.
We should be honest as Ghanaians not to politicize our own issues, he emphasized, adding that the technical team should be charged and challenged to find a better solution to solve the energy crisis in the country.
He praised UCC-UTAG for the forum and stressed that they were fulfilling the mandate of universities to generate knowledge to be used to help solve national and global problems.
Speaking on the Topic: “Re-engineering sustainable energy production for national development”, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Policy Analyst and Energy Expert, asked the government to allow energy professionals to find solutions to the crisis.
He also advised politicians to stop politicizing the energy crisis and called for a symbiotic relationship between academia and government, researchers and policy makers to help deal with the crisis.
Dr Wereko-Brobby, who is a former Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), urged the government to stabilize the currency to help reduce the cost of power to Ghanaian consumers.
Dr Ishmael Ackah, an Energy Expert at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, who spoke on the topic: “Effective and efficient energy distribution for industrial, commercial and domestic use” urged the government to fully pay its debts to the ECG to help serve Ghanaians better.
He also called for the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC) to be independent, fair and firm, adding that the wastage in the energy distributional chain through loses was an issue that must be given due attention because it was one of the factors draining the country’s economy and crippling the operations of ECG.
Source: GNA