Ghana’s technical regulator for electricity and Natural Gas, the Energy Commission, in collaboration with the Ghana Prison Service, trained 30 prison inmates and officers at Nsawam Prison in electrical wiring as part of efforts to reform the inmates and also make them employable after serving their prison term.
Last Friday, the Commission and Ghana Prison Service held a graduation ceremony after three months of completing the Certified Electrical Wiring Professional training programme.
Delivering the keynote address, Executive Secretary for Energy Commission, Ing Oscar Amoono-Neizer, observed that to reduce avoidable fires in the country, over 15,000 electricians have been trained and certified under the Certified Electrical Wiring Professional programme nationwide since 2013.
All these measures, he said are steps to reduce incidences of fires in homes, businesses and communities.
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According to him, formal education and vocational training would help to resource the inmates to acquire the right skills which would be useful to society.
“The training will not only help the beneficiaries to become useful in the job market but also contribute their quota to the socioeconomic development of this nation,” he said.
He affirmed that the Energy Commission paid all the cost of training and certification and also resourced the trainees with tools to get them started in their businesses after serving their prison terms.
He also urged the trained officers to train inmates to help in resourcing interested inmates with the skills in that profession.
In his remarks, the Board Chairman of the Energy Commission, Prof Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu, tasked the beneficiaries of the programme to uphold the professional ethics in electrical wiring and advised other inmates to join the trade, arguing that acquiring knowledge in the field would be significant in their lives and Ghanaian.
The Deputy Director General in Charge of Operations of the Ghana Prison Service, who delivered a speech on behalf of the substantive Head, Dr Francis Omane-Addo, said the service has started registering inmates to write the Basic Education Certificate Exams (BECE), West African Senior Secondary Certificate Exams (WASSCE) and university courses to upgrade the educational skills of the inmates to become resourceful after their term of sentences.
He also expressed appreciation to the Energy Commission for building and furnishing a centre for inmates to use for their skills development and training.
The Energy Commission is tasked to regulate and manage the development and utilisation of energy resources in Ghana to ensure the provision of an efficient and secure manner to promote, the social and economic well-being of the people of Ghana, and enhance environmental quality and public safety.
It is in respect of this that the Ghana Electrical Wiring Regulations 2012L.I 2008 were passed into law by Parliament in February 2012.
The theme of the programme was ensuring the safety of life and property through the promotion of standardised cables and accessories.