Ghana’s technical electricity regulator, Energy Commission has organised a two-day training programme for some selected journalists in the West African nation who report on energy issues.
The training programme, which took place in the Ga East Municipality in Accra, was aimed at helping the journalists to get deeper understanding of the role of the Energy Commission in the country’s energy sector as well as build on their stock of knowledge regarding terminology in the sector.
Topics discussed included institutional framework of the Energy Sector, Introduction to Energy: What is Energy; Forms of Energy and Energy Terminologies and Unit, the Concept of Renewable Energy, Energy Access Issues, Gender Issues in the Energy Sector, and Local Content and Local Participation in the Energy Supply Industry.
Opening the training programme, the Chairman of the Energy Commission, Professor George Panyin Hagan noted that the media play important role in the society and have a lot of influence.
He said it was, consequently, important for the Commission to build the capacity of the media in order for them to understand the functions of the Commission to be able to communicate their message well for their audience
He was hopeful that with the starting of such engagements, the journalists would become active group people who would be leading discussions on energy issues.
Prof Hagan hinted that the Commission would, in the future, introduce a course in energy to allow those who want to pursue energy reporting as a profession to enroll.
He emphasised that Ghana’s access to energy is about 85 percent and challenged the journalists to see energy as human rights and champion it.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com