Akosombo town to be redesigned into technology and industrial hub

Without compromising the environmentally friendly nature of the Akosombo area, the redesigning project is expected to include; a data centre, positioning the area as a home to global technology companies.

Dr Stella Adjenim Boateng, Deputy Chief Executive of VRA, who announced this said the Akosombo Smart City Project was part of a broad repositioning and digitalization agenda of VRA.

She was speaking at the opening of the annual conference and General Meeting of the Society of VRA Engineers (SOVRAE) at Akosombo in the Asuogyaman District on Thursday.

Elaborating on the theme “VRA 60 years and beyond, leveraging emerging technologies for a resilient new VRA,” she said, the call for VRA to re-orient on their paradigm was appropriate.

She said the story of VRA 50 years ago could not be the same today and that was a charge for the members of the society of engineers and all other professionals to up their game.

“Our position and existence as Ghana’s premier utility is threatened, we have moved from 100 per cent share of the energy market to 53 per cent share and that calls on us not to continue to live in past glory,” she said.

Dr Boateng expressed the hope that the society of engineers would support the agenda to move towards renewable energy and the other energy trends for VRA to redefine its position in the industry.

“If we don’t re-orient our paradigm in a more competitive forward-looking manner, we stand the risk of only telling our story but leaving no mark.”

The SOVRAE was established in 1992 through the initiative of some engineers within VRA who saw the need to support engineering practices within the organisation and to provide an advisory role to VRA management.

Mr Kwaku Sarpong, SOVRAE President, said the theme for the conference was chosen at a time that VRA was poised for a paradigm shift in its business strategy to achieve operational significance through digitalisation and redesigning by a number of strategic products.

The challenges confronting the environment called for a new understanding and indicated that engineers were trained to find solutions and there should be an effort to make a great impact and significant contribution for the benefit of the VRA.