The Ministry of Energy and the World Bank will host a GESTIP stakeholder meeting in Accra.

Over the weekend, a stakeholder engagement exercise was held at the Accra Metropolitan Authority under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy and the World Bank's Ghana Energy Sector Transformation Initiative Project (GESTIP).

The event, which drew representatives from various energy sector agencies, religious organisations, civil society groups, professional bodies, and tradesmen and women, among others, aimed to update stakeholders on some of the gains made through GESTIP, which is funded by the World Bank, through a series of presentations followed by a discussion segment.

Ing James Demitrus, the project's coordinator, explained that Ghana's energy sector has faced a number of challenges over the years, including gas supply shortages, high payments for installed capacity to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), high distribution losses, and low revenue collections by ECG, among others. "Ghana has implemented a wide range of power sector reforms, including unbundling its power sector and attracting private investment through independent power producers (IPPs) to improve supply of electricity" , he said.

GESTIP, according to Ing Demitrus, is aimed at increasing the power industry's capacity to undertake sector reforms and enhance energy sector planning and coordination in Ghana.

According to the project coordinator, 46 consultation activities have been carried out over the duration of GESTIP to provide the beneficiary institutions with the necessary knowledge and information to further improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Furthermore, the essential software and hardware equipment have been purchased for some of the recipient institutions in order to boost the performance of the agency. He also revealed that 142 energy sector employees had been trained in technical domains as well as project management to help them implement the industry's reforms.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Energy Commission (EC), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Northern Electricity Development Company (NEDCO), Volta River Authority (VRA), and the Ministry of Energy are among the beneficiaries of the $20 million project, which began in February 2019 and will end on December 31, 2023.

A similar stakeholder engagement event is planned for Friday, December 22, 2023, at the University for Development Studies in Tamale.