AFSEC to increase electricity access with harmonised standards
African countries must take immediate steps towards a harmonised electrotechnical standards regime to help facilitate greater access to electricity through a regional electricity market, the President of the African Electrotechnical and Standardisation Commission (AFSEC), Bernard Modey has said.
He said such moves would also facilitate trade in electro- technical goods across the region taking into account the falling prices of renewable energy technologies to make electricity more available and at a reasonable cost.
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"We sincerely hope that those countries that are yet to complete their membership will take advantage of these materials and the unique opportunity of the presence of AFSEC officials here to get all their concerns addressed so as to finalise the membership process," he said.
Mr Modey was speaking at the 8th AFSEC General Assembly in Accra on Tuesday.
The hybrid meetings, the first of its kind since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought together AFSEC members from member countries including, Ghana, Guinea, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Meetings
The meetings are expected to promote innovative standardisation, reorient and adapt processes for a more efficient implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and to make AFSEC more efficient and collaborative.
It is also aimed at making standardisation results available to experts and users in a user-friendly, fast and high quality manner.
AFSEC was established in 2008 as a subsidiary body of the African Energy Commission (AFREC), to promote for everything related to electro-technical standardisation aiming to support electro-technical industrialisation of Africa.
Business growth
In a key note address read on his behalf, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Professor Alex Dodoo called on member states to work towards the realisation of the expected outcome of the General Assembly which was to agree on a common focus and procedures that can act as accelerators of the AFSEC 's response to the needs of business and meet consumer expectations across the continent.
He expressed appreciation to the members of AFSEC for being present at the meetings.
"We at GSA are extremely honoured that in spite of your very busy schedules, you have found time to be here to participate in this event," he said.
Meanwhile, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), National Committee Chairman, Bukari Danladi, expressed appreciation to AFSEC members for the confidence reposed in Ghana, and their immense support received through their experts.
“Our experts have been involved in the development and publication of three out of the current five AFSEC guides. AFSEC is being called upon; and Ghana, as a statutory member, will respond accordingly to be the beacon of the application of standards for industrialisation on the continent. We are proud that Ghana has been given the mandate to lead AFSEC,” he said.