December 10, 2021
Ghana’s Ministry of Energy has played host to Sierra Leone’s Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh and the Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, who are currently in Ghana to hold experience sharing discussions with energy related sectors in that country with a view to transferring knowledge and using lessons learnt to positively impact or transform Sierra Leone’s energy sector.
Receiving the Vice President and his team, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Energy, Mohammed Amin Adam, said his Ministry felt highly honored to play host to Sierra Leone’s Vice President, adding that the Ministry of Energy was the heartbeat of Ghana and therefore one that had critical significance in the socioeconomic matrix of his country.
He said he was happy that a high-level team had decided to call on his Ministry so as to discuss matters of common interests to the two countries with respect to how to provide reliable, affordable and quality energy services.
Hon. Mohammed Amin Adam said Ghana and Sierra Leone had enjoyed a long period of good bilateral relations, noting that the visit of the Vice President to Ghana and to his Ministry was a demonstration of how close the two countries were and how committed they were in pursuing matters of common interests. He concluded by saying that his country had taken Sierra Leone’s Petroleum Act as a model or blueprint to develop its own Petroleum Exploration and Production Laws.
Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh thanked the Deputy Minister for the warm reception accorded his team, noting that their experience sharing visit to Ghana was principally informed by two objectives.
He said the team was in Ghana to meet with Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority and the Ministry of Energy to share experiences on implementation of Compact Development Programs and to learn how Ghana’s Ministry of Energy was able to navigate the myriad of challenges to increase access rate to energy in the country. He spoke about the regional TRANSCO CLSG electricity project and other areas that required regional cooperation.
Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, said the fact that the team had chosen to visit Ghana was not by accident, emphasizing also that the fact that the team was led by his country’s Vice President was an indication of the importance and seriousness they had attached to the visit.
He said Sierra Leone had been recently declared Compact Eligible, noting that because Ghana had distinguished itself in the implementation of Compact Programs, the visiting team was convinced that beneficial lessons would be learnt from their visit which they would take back home and use to positively impact the country’s transformative energy drive.
Chief Executive Officer of Sierra Leone’s MCCU, Ndeye Koroma, gave an overview of Sierra Leone’s Compact Threshold and Compact Programs and thanked the Ministry of Energy in Ghana for their support to a technical staff that Sierra Leone had dispatched to their country.