Telecommunication industry can provide electricity power – Dr. Kludjeson

Tema, June 12, CDA Consul – Dr. Prince Kofi Kludjeson, a Past President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has called on the government to create the necessary synergy and infrastructure for stakeholders in the telecommunication industry for their masts to be connected and use as a back-up to the electricity power.

Dr. Kludjeson said there were enough telecommunication towers in Ghana noting that “telecommunication companies are the biggest providers of power to national resource because it’s a must that you have a generator to power the masts for emergencies”.

He said the telecommunications operated on batteries which got charged when the grid was put on that when the grid was put off, the generator takes over “when ECG is on, the generator is lying fallow and if the generators in Tema today are all linked up to the national grid, Tema will never be out of light.

Dr. Kludjeson who is the President of Celltel Network Limited was speaking at the Ghana News Agency-Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform on the topic, “The new global economy and technological education,” which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

The GNA Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world and address global issues.

He said telecommunications towers are essential for emergency and everyday communications.

He, therefore, urged power-producing companies including Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) among others to collaborate with private companies to solve Ghana’s power supply challenges.

He said telecommunications companies among others have the capacity to supply the country with stable power when leveraged as they all have highly powered generators for their masts.

Dr. Kludjeson, who is also a Chief Technical Advisor for the Centre for Greater Impact Africa (CGIA), said these telecommunication masts have stored power as the importance of telecom towers for everyday life as well as emergencies makes providing a source of backup power for telecom towers a must.

“I disagree that we have power problems in Ghana because you see a tower all around us, there is an excess power, the power base at Obonu FM is enough to power the whole of Tema,” the President of Celltel Network Limited stated.

He mentioned that there must be a practical approach to find solutions and urged that the development of the country was tailored to the local base knowledge “what we are not doing in Ghana is that, we are not doing synergies with the system with whatever we have”.

“One of the good news in Ghana is that about 80 percent of the engineers came from the same school, thus KNUST so how can we not get together to find solutions but have difficulties that have to be with policies that were going on”.

Meanwhile, Reverend Dr. Samuel Worlanyo Mensah, Executive Director for the Centre for Greater Impact Africa, has reiterated a call on the government to create more entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth to help reduce the high rate of unemployment.

Rev. Dr. Mensah, who is an economist said apart from making monies available for the youth as a start-up as contained in the 2022 budget, the government must strengthen the technical base of the country for many to develop the interest in manufacturing and industries.

Rev. Dr. Mensah said that currently there was a gap between academia and industries as most graduates only knew the theories without the practical knowledge and therefore called on the government to develop modules that would bridge the vacuum.

He also called for the modification of technical schools into industrial educational institutions, which would help attract more youth into that sector and would also change people’s perception of technical and vocational training being the reserve of school dropouts.

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, the Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency admonished public institutions to work with credible media institutions to curb the spread of fake news.

“A credible practitioner from a credible media institution whether you gave him or her honorarium popularly known as "soli" or not, they are under obligation to do the story because the programme was booked and it was expected of the assigned journalist to produce a news story,” Mr. Ameyibor stated.

Source: CDA Consult