Meeting with the Ghanaian National Electrotechnical Committee
Ghana lies in west Africa. Its capital,
Accra, recently hosted the inauguration
of the new AFSEC regional organization
On 25 February 2008, while in Ghana participating in the inaugural meeting of the African Electrotechnical Standardization Commission (AFSEC), Françoise Rauser, IEC Affiliate Country Programme Secretary, visited the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) which has been affiliated to the IEC since November 2001, and met with members of the newly established national electrotechnical committee which was officially inaugurated a week earlier by the Ghanaian governmental authorities. Jacob Baiden of GSB and the newly appointed Secretary of the electrotechnical committee and Moses Dowuona, of the Ghana Institution of Engineers and Chairman of the electrotechnical committee, attended the meeting, together with two representatives of GSB, Charlotte Ohene-Manu, Deputy Executive Director and Kwasi Osuwu Boadu, Head of Engineering Standards.
Interesting questions were raised as to future collaboration with the IEC under the umbrella of the Affiliate Country Programme. The IEC responded with an example of how one could participate actively in IEC technical work by selecting a NIP (New Item Proposal) and follow the document through up to the CDV (Committee Draft for Voting) stage. This would enable them to familiarize themselves with IEC standard development before envisaging an upgrade of the Affiliate status to membership. Indeed, there seems to be a strong demand from the stakeholders in the electrotechnical field for Ghana to join the IEC.
Moses Dowuona, Chairman of the
Ghanaian National Electrotechnical
Committee is a member of the
Ghana Institution of Engineers
Before he became Chairman of the Ghanaian National Electrotechnical Committee, Moses Dowuona had attended IEC General Meetings in Cape Town in 2005 and Paris in 2007 and told Rauser that he had been impressed with how the IEC interacts with the private sector. They also discussed the matter of members of the national committee representing Ghana at the next IEC General Meeting in Sao Paulo in November 2008.
Questions were also raised on GSB joining the IEC Worldwide System for Conformity Testing and Certification of Electrotechnical Equipment and Components (IECEE).
After the meeting, the IEC Affiliate Secretary met with Adu G. Darkwa, GSB Executive Director, his deputy Charlotte Ohene-Manu and Moses Dowuona. It was agreed that the Ghana Standards Board would back the activities of the newly established national electrotechnical committee which, in turn, would provide a work programme to GSB. IEC offered to help the new committee in every way possible to facilitate its participation in IEC technical work and standardization activities.
Following this meeting the Chairman of the Ghanaian National Electrotechnical Committee informed the IEC Affiliate Secretariat that the Ghana Standards Board and the Ghana Energy Commission had been working together in developing standards for Solar Thermal and Solar PV Systems for application in the country. Moses Dowuona has also added that members of the national electrotechnical committee find the standards being developed by TC 82: Solar photovoltaic energy systems, especially the IEC series 62257, Recommendations for small renewable energy and hybrid systems for rural electrification, particularly relevant to their present work and that they would be providing comments in the near future.
The newly established Ghanaian National Electrotechnical Committee. From left to right, staff of Ghana Standards Board (GSB) and Volta River Authority (VRA) are: Mark Yarquah - GSB, Jacob Kwesi Baiden - GSB, Oppong Ansu-Gyeabour - VRA, K. O. Boadu - GSB, Emmanuel Kwa-Kofi - GSB, William Amuna - VRA
Related information:
Ghana Bureau of Standards
email to Françoise Rauser , IEC Affiliate Country Programme Secretary
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