Dr Kwame Ampofo, Chairman of the awards panel of the maiden Ghana Energy Awards, has lauded the Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, for the ministry’s immense support during the awards event last year.

He told the Minister that the recipients of the awards had been appreciative and regarded them in high esteem, which is an indication of the quantum of effort which had been put into organizing the event.

However, he noted that continued support and collaborations with the Ministry would be quite substantive in subsequent events.

Henry Teinor, Chief Executive and organiser of the Ghana Energy Awards also commended the Minister for his efforts so far to address the power crises and load shedding, popularly christened “Dum-Sor”.

Mr Agyarko remarked that a lot of work has been done to make energy affordable for consumers.

He explained that energy can only be affordable when prices are reduced and this can be done when the cost of power generation is reduced and there are improved transmission losses.

The Minister further mentioned that there would be a demand-supply management, as it is only when the supply exceeds demand that the consumer can get a different level of price equilibrium.

In a meeting with the Ghana Energy Awards (GEA) Committee in Accra, Boakye Agyarko told his guests “achieving all these is mainly dependent on how the private sector participants in the energy sector are motivated. This is so, because the government is just a policy maker, however, it is the execution and the implementation of these policies that is done by the private sector.”

Thus, he believed that it was significant that majority of the awardees were from the private sector, and not from government.

He continued that when policies are made, the ones who execute them are the actual change-makers and the ones who make the difference; consequently, they must be encouraged.

As a Ministry, he said, it is their passion to continually ensure that sensible and practical policies devoid of conflicts are made, so that during execution, they can be implemented soundly without any issues for all those involved.

“If we can combine the interest of the two and not serving our own selves, we will benefit immensely in this country, and it is going to require the cooperation of all of us to make it happen,” he added.

Mr Agyarko said he is counting on the GEA team in the realisation of all that he had mentioned, especially when it involves the educational processes, cracking the whips, stripping the sector of corruption, and being bold enough to say no to things that will curtail the growth and improvement of the energy sector.

He mentioned that those are the kind of things he is confronted with, which gradually he will overcome, adding that he hopes to “equip this country with the legacy that will be beneficial to all of us, and which we will be proud of.”

Expressing his appreciation for the team’s call on him, the Minister gave assurance of the Ministry’s support for the Ghana Energy Awards event, and indicated that he would endeavour to nominate a focal team as the Ministry’s representatives to be directly involved in the awards scheme.

He advised the team to consolidate their work together to seek the growth of the event, and added his belief that with good efforts, the awards scheme, sooner or later, will become a very competitive awards system for the energy sector in Ghana.

Nicholas Frimpong-Manso, CEO of CH-Business Consulting and a coorganizer, cited a round table sector meeting with the Minister and the Awardees as one of the outlined activities intended to take place between now and the next event.

Dr Lawrence Tetteh, Head of the World Miracle Outreach, at the end of the engagement, sought Godspeed for the Minister, and asked for God’s divine grace for Mr Agyarko’s undertakings.

He also prayed God for the strength of will, with which the Minister can achieve all that he has purported for the ministry and the nation.