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A member of the Council of State, Sam Okudzeto, has charged African engineering practitioners to be bold and courageous in the discharge of their duties.
He urged them not to allow politicians and society to meddle in their work which ensured the right things were done in conformity with the tenets of their profession.
Mr Okudzeto was addressing the 54th Annual General Meeting and 2024 Conference of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) in Accra.
Speaking on the theme: “Engineering a resilient future: Innovative solutions for a sustainable Ghana”, Mr Okudzeto suggested to the leadership of GhIE to organise a trip to Dubai and Qatar for members to learn innovative solutions to infrastructure development and state-of-the-art designs.
He said although most countries in the Middle East were in the desert, they were able to come up with innovations to address their challenges.
Mr Okudzeto, therefore, urged the engineers to exchange ideas with their international counterparts to help build a better Ghana, Africa and the world at large.
The President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), Mustafa Shehu, said the GhIE was an active member of the Federation, as well as host to the WFEO Policy/Implementation Committee of Women in Engineering (WiE).
He reminded African engineering practitioners that without capacity development, the African Union Agenda 2063, a vision focusing on the sustainable transformation of Africa in the next 50 years, would not succeed in achieving its goals.
The President of GhIE, Ing. Kwabena Bempong, said it was important that as engineering practitioners, “we play our part by designing and providing resilient infrastructure for development”.
“In order to achieve this, there is the need for interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative approaches, a new mindset and long-term planning to build infrastructure that can withstand the challenges of the future,” he added.
Ing. Bempong expressed appreciation to the international guests who made it to the conference and sponsors of the event such as the Volta River Authority, MC Bauchemie, VACC Technical Ltd. and exhibitors.
The Executive Director of GhIE, David Kwatia Nyante, said the annual event serves as a platform for engineering practitioners and thought leaders to come together to share knowledge, collaborate, network and contribute to the advancement of the nation’s sustainable development.
He said there was the pressing need for the engineering community to address challenges and opportunities that lay ahead, arising from technological disruptions and global economic shifts by being innovative.
Fraternal messages were delivered by the President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Margaret Aina Oguntala; and President of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (SLIE), Ing. Trudy Morgan, as well as representatives of Liberia and Burkina Faso.
The Chairman of the Engineering Council of Ghana, Kwame Boakye; the immediate past President of WAFEO, Leslie Alex Ayeh, and the immediate past President of FAEO, Carlien Bou-Chedid, also delivered goodwill messages.
