THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Germany’s technology company Siemens has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Ghana to address the country’s energy and infrastructure challenges, while contributing to the country’s growth and development agenda of creating high quality jobs and enhancing the vocational skills of Ghana’s youth.
The MoU was signed by Siemens and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) in the presence of the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the President and Global Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG, Joe Kaeser.
Under the agreement, the two companies will work collaboratively to upgrade and extend Ghana’s transmission infrastructure, improve the country’s grid capacity and stability, enable and expand a stable power export to neighbouring countries in the West African Power Pool.
“Access to electricity is an imperative need for the people and business and, thus, for economic success of any economy. As Ghana has significantly invested into generation capacity, there is now an urgent need to build a reliable, affordable and sustainable electrical network for the country and its people. With our proven and unique end-to-end electrification solutions, our expertise and reliability, Siemens can be a technology partner and help the country achieve its objectives,” Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens.
The President of Ghana has set out to achieve an ambitious strategy to transform the country, both socially and economically, driving its progress to becoming a sustainably industrialized county.
The Government is currently delivering on the promises made in their 2016 election manifesto. These goals include the issuing of National ID Cards, the reduction of electricity prices, reviving Ghana’s railways and reversing the trend of declining economic growth.
“We applaud Ghana for all its achievements under the leadership of President Nana Akufo- Addo. We are eager to contribute to Ghana’s successes by creating local value and being a powerful and reliable regional partner to the country’s socio-economic development goals,” says Joe Kaeser.
To support Ghana’s increasing need to reform the national Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, Siemens will also educate and train young Ghanaians in various engineering disciplines and provide training on Siemens equipment for STEM education and TVET.
Joe Kaeser further stated that Siemens is pleased to be entering this partnership and contributing to the growth and development of Ghana. Improving the energy sector in Ghana is now one of the key priorities for Siemens, therefore the implementation of this MoU will help leapfrog the country and its people towards its industrial and societal development goals.
Report distributed by APO Group on behalf of Siemens AG
