The Policy aimed at empowering women, particularly those working in the energy sector organizations to give off their best and also ensure Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) work in a friendly environment devoid of discrimination.

This is to help women and PWDs alike contribute their quota towards the country's socio-economic development.

Dr Cherub Antwi-Nsiah, the Director of Gender and Social Inclusion Unit, MiDA, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that, the Policy would resolve issues concerning training, promotion and recruitment of staff into the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and improve the economic wellbeing women for them to positively impact the society.

"It allows men and women alike to feel comfortable to work in the energy sector organizations. A cursory look at the number of women working in energy related employment shows that females constituted a very small fraction.

"In Ghana, there are only eight per cent female engineers and sometimes women are not even represented at the top management level of energy related organisations," Dr Antwi-Ansah observed.

She said a survey conducted by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) at the ECG and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to examine the ratio of male to female employment showed that women were far less than men.

Also, women who pursue energy related courses at the tertiary level faced a lot of difficulty securing employment into energy organizations after completion.

Therefore, the MCC, while providing financial support for the country's energy reforms decided to develop a guiding document to empower women to play prominent roles in the energy sector, under the ECG's Financial and Operational Turnaround (EFOT) Project, Dr Antwi-Nsiah explained.

In that regard, she said one of the sub activities under modernising ECG's operations was Institutionalising Gender Responsiveness and Social Inclusion in the power distribution company and focus attention on the needs of women.

The United States Government provided grant worth millions of dollars to support Ghana's energy reforms through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, under a five-year programme.

MiDA is the implementing entity of the Ghana Power Compact II on behalf of the Government of Ghana.