The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Mr Benjamin Boakye has called for all to focus on the direction the world is going with regards to technology.
Speaking with the running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman as part of her two-day working visit to selected CSOs, he disclosed that, they are in the next five years, looking at the energy transition because oil is also increasingly and becoming less popular.
“Therefore we should look at the direction the world is going to and this time around we should pay attention to it and shouldn’t wait to become participants and importers of technology but Africa should be interested in technology development and should also create.”
Mr. Boakye also lamented that,
“We sit here, we see young people who have technology ideas and information on renewable energy but they don’t have anyone to go to. We need space for people to think, for people to be practical about their ideas so that we can also export technology in the world. We have a lot of advantage in the new revolution and Africa holds most of the input to renewable energy.”
Speaking on the extraction of resources, he said that what the ACEP has taken upon itself is to ensure that the extraction of resources can be linked directly to the socio-economic development of our nation.
“So within that span, we will try to break it down looking at contract issues, revenue management issues, institutional development issues and further break it down to ensure that once the people go on the resources the question will be: who will benefit? And also, to see how we can also integrate based on gender, people with disabilities down to the poor rural folks to ensure that everyone will be accountable.”
The NDC team present speaking on energy said that, they have a very strong team on energy and want to focus on indigenization, social integration and also look at how energy can be used as the driver to improve the economic situation.
They also said, they will appreciate if the ACEP helps them track some of the initiatives put across in their manifesto. They further asked the ACEP to partner with them now and not wait till they come into power since they will play an important role and can also give them independent advise since the energy sector is of great importance .
Professor Naana Opoku Agyeman as part of her contribution to the conversation urged the energy sector to find out what the other countries are doing right and what we are doing wrong in order to help improve the sector.
Talking on raw material extraction, she said that Ghana as a nation “need to reduce our level of dependency and become more independent” with regards to technology and the energy sector as a whole.
She further urged that, “one area everybody in the extractive industry should be interested in is the area of law.”
She also said that part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be used to identify the needs of the people especially with energy and use part of their CSR to extend energy to them.
