In partnership with the Vienna-based Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), and the Energy Commission (EC) of Ghana, The Energy Centre (TEC) has organised a three-day residential Training Workshop for selected journalists in Ghana. 

The workshop was organized to equip media professionals with a critical body of knowledge on selected focal areas in energy which would enhance their understanding of the sector and enable them to more accurately report energy issues.  

The three-day residential workshop (27 – 29 March, 2014) brought together twenty (20) journalists from across the country drawn from both public and private media houses. The selection criteria focused on a national representation of journalists as well as media houses with wide reach. Additionally, event organizers also considered as advantage, journalists who have had previous working relations with energy sector institutions and were part of the Energy Commission’s Press Corps and those with some experience in energy issues reportage.  

There were six (6) journalists from the print media, seven (7) from radio and seven (7) from television. 

The training is part of the project titled “Building a reliable energy access database to promote sustainable energy expansion in Ghana”. 

Resource persons came from The Energy Center (KNUST), the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, and the Energy Commission.  The topics treated ranged from basic energy nomenclature related to energy generation, transmission and distribution. It also included an overview of agencies playing different roles in Ghana’s energy sector (including energy efficiency and renewable energy) as well as the benefits of open access data. 

Participants expressed gratitude for the training and were happy about the knowledge gained. Considering the volume of information that they had to process in the 3-day period, they suggested that subsequent events should be given longer duration. 

The project coordinator (Ms Gifty Mensah) may be contacted at: gmens82@gmail.com