Employees of the Volta River Authority (VRA) have held a two-day career talk programme for the students of the Tema Manhean Senior High Technical School in the school.
The educative programme, which is aimed at helping the beneficiaries to know who they are and to further prepare them for their future careers, is part of the Employee Volunteer Programme (EVP) of VRA, Ghana’s largest power generation company.
The mentors took the students through tailored sessions which included Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Mental Health, Career Guidance and ICT Boot all in a bid to help to contribute to the beneficiaries’ future development.
Prince Tawiah, the Principal Systems Administrator of VRA, and Ms. Felicity Dzordzorme, a graduate teacher at the Akosombo International School, took the students through the plenary session and phase two of the EVP respectively.
The EVP, Samuel Binifo, the Headmaster of Tema Manhean Senior High Technical School, in his opening remarks, said would enable the students to believe in themselves and be disciplined as they develop.
He expressed the belief that students’ development is better moulded when they are privileged to have people holding responsible positions in their fields of expertise talk to students most of whom do not know themselves.
“I would encourage you to learn from our guests who have become who they are today through discipline, hard work, dedication and focus. If you will study hard and take their advice to you, you are likely to become like them,” Mr. Binifo told his students.
He thanked his guests for choosing his school out of the 46 second-cycle institutions in the Greater Accra Region for the 2023 EVP.
Samuel Fletcher, the Community Relations Manager, VRA, after a brief highlight of the operations of VRA which he said included, generating electricity for onward transmission and distribution to consumers and with a vision of becoming a model of excellence for power generation in Africa, explained the importance of the students to VRA “because you are one of our key stakeholders in our operational areas.”
Consequently, the EVP, he said was initiated to take care of VRA’s communities “and once we have students living in our communities, we need to engage them through career guidance.”
Mr. Fletcher said Tema Manhean Senior High Technical School was the second school the EVP had been taken to in the Tema area after the Kpone Community Day School last year.
The next stop for the EVP is the Ahantaman SHS, Western Region, and as part of the school’s upcoming anniversary, Mr. Fletcher said his outfit had supported the Ahantaman SHS with prizes for the best student.
“This year, we will be visiting three schools. We are doing Tema today. We will go to our next school, which is Ahantaman SHS. Our third school will come later and we believe that our CSR programmes will benefit our students who are the future leaders of our country,” he told the media in an interview.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
On his part, the Executive Secretary of Energy Commission, Ing Oscar Amonoo -Neizer said the Challenge has come a long way since its modest inception in 2019 when it was first introduced as a pilot programme involving 29 schools in the Greater Accra Region.
Since then, he said the Challenge has evolved into a national programme, capturing the attention and enthusiasm of both academic and non-academic institutions.
He said the prizes for this year would even be much better than the previous ones.
He expressed the Commission’s gratitude to the partners- German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Ashesi University, Bui Power Authority and Sunon Asogli Power (Ghana) Limited for their invaluable support.
The facility is equipped with a control building,a main transformer platform hosting three 125MVA transformers,a Gas Insulated Switchgear platform with 170kV gas-insulated switchgear and platforms for 161kV cable terminations and indoor 33kV switchgear systems.
Commissioning the project, the President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo noted that the sub-station “is a technological innovation applied in areas where spaces are significant and limited, where large capacity switch care and transformers which are compact can be installed.
“The benefits of this Accra bulk supply point, amongst others, are to reduce transmission and distribution losses, ensure high reliability of electricity supply and ensure a high level of personnel safety,” the President remarked.
“Now with the operationalisation of the Accra bulk supply point, power voltages have become stable, protecting valuable equipment, power supply reliability has improved and with this, reducing system losses as required by the regulator, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC),” he added.
President Akufo-Addo registered the appreciation of the government and the people of Ghana to the government and people of the Kingdom of Japan for their kind gesture.
“This project could not have become a reality without the generous grant from the Japanese government and its external agency, the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA), with Japanese technology and technological assistance. This project is an excellent illustration of the strong cooperation between the Republic of Ghana and the Kingdom of Japan which we cherish,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“On behalf of the government and people of Ghana, I extend deep appreciation to the Japanese government and the Japanese consultants, the joint venture of Yachiyo Engineering Company Limited and West Japan Engineering Consultancy Incorporated, the main contractor, the main contractor, the Japanese joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation, Hitachi Plant Construction Limited Yurtec Corporation for the efforts and continues corporation and contribution to Ghana’s development and growth,” Akufo-Addo added.
The Minister for Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and Board Chairman of GRIDCo, Ambassador Kabal Blay-Amihere, in their brief statements, both took turns to register their appreciation to the Japanese Government for making the project a reality.
They added that overall, the project would relieve the existing substations of overloads and, thereby, allowing for planned maintenance works to be carried out without power supply interruptions to customers, a significant reduction in power losses especially at the medium voltage level, among others.
Country Representative of JICA, Ms Suzuku Momoko, and the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu, in their statements, also indicated that the Japanese Government is delighted to offer her support to Ghana in the power sector.
It is the vision of the Government of Japan to continue in their efforts aimed at ensuring that Ghana enjoys a constant power supply across the entire land space of the country.
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He further stated that in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Ghana is enjoined in Target 15.2 to “promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.”
He continued that BPA was committed to relentlessly establishing forests cover through its flagship ‘Forest Resource Enhancement Programme (FREP)’ to implementing climate mitigating actions through tree planting within all BPA’s operational areas among others with the needed resources to achieve their desired objectives.
He indicated that the FREP initiative commenced in 2012 on a pilot scheme and has, over the years, received a tremendous boost with an expansion from a coverage area of 423.67 acres as of 2021 to 1,423.67 in 2023 under his leadership.
On bushfire management, he paid special tribute to the Ghana National Fire Service deployed to Bui and PAPs Contractors in complementing the OHSE Team’s efforts to achieve this.
The Deputy Director of OHS&E, Mr Chrisentus B. Kuunifaa indicated that the forests are serving as the “lungs of the earth that support our very existence and survival on this planet.”
He, therefore, underscored the critical role forests play in BPA business continuity and operational excellence, in line with the theme for the 2023 Green Ghana Day; ‘OUR FORESTS, OUR HEALTH’.
He catalogued some of the benefits of the established forests which included the provision of clean air, carbon capture, food, medicine, water (hydrological cycle) and support the life of all forms and well-being.
On his part, the Director of the Power Operations Department, Mr Samuel Nimako Boateng reiterated that energy was key to human development such as providing basic needs, increasing productivity and improving effective health care delivery.
He stated that being conscious of the imminent threats of climate change and global warming, BPA would continue to position itself to contribute zero carbon emissions in its operations.
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