Following the passage of the Electrical Wiring Regulations 2011 (LI 2008), it has become imperative that all electricians in the country undergo a required training course and be certified by the commission before they can operate as such.

Organised front
At the passing-out ceremony in Kumasi last Tuesday, the Coordinator of the Energy Commission programme, Mr Solomon Sarpong, asked the newly certified electricians to organise themselves into associations to have a common front that would fight for their cause.

He said as a group, they had a better chance of changing the course of the profession in the country and also demand better products and competitive prices.
According to him, if as a group they decided to boycott a product due to its inferior quality or abnormal price, “the market will have no other option than to acquiesce to your demands, since you are the ones who buy these products.”

He said the certification was to ensure professionalism in the sector and to avoid the use of substandard products for wiring.

According to him, the commission has compiled a database of all certified electricians in the country and would use it to monitor the activities of electricians in the country.

He said professionals who would be found to have acted unprofessionally would be blacklisted and their licences revoked.

Mr Sarpong explained that the move was to ensure professionalism in the industry and eliminate the activities of quacks to guarantee the safety of people’s investment, life and property.

He said the programme would achieve a significant milestone to reduce the frequent fire outbreaks at homes, industrial and commercial areas as the use of substandard electrical materials would be a thing of the past.