VRA subsidiary board members inaugurated

The Boards of Directors for three subsidiary companies of the Volta River Authority (VRA), have been sworn into office by Dr Kwabena Donkor, Minister of Power, and tasked to play effective supervisory role to salvage the economy from the current energy challenges.

The three subsidiary companies are: PROCo, VRA International Schools and VRA Health Services Limited.

The board members include Mr William Bobie, Mrs Eva Andoh-Poku, Mr Martin Nantwi, Mr Peter Osei-Asomoah, Mrs Alice Osei-Okrah, and Mr Arnold Seshie.

The rest are Dr George Afeti, Mr Emmanuel Ofosu-Ofei, Mr Abdulai Alhassan Adams, Mr Stephen Opare and Dr (Mrs) R. Acquaah-Arhin, Dr Ken Sagoe, Mrs Kokui Adu, Mr Anthony Forson Jnr and Mr Ludwig Hlordze.

Dr Donkor said, re-organizing VRA’s non-power operations, namely, real estate, VRA schools and hospitals, into subsidiary companies, allowed them to exploit their core competences.

This he said, could be done in such a way as to allow for greater competitive capacity to restructure the energy sector.

He said the restructuring allowed VRA to concentrate on the core requisite of its business mission, that is, electricity generation so as to increase efficiency and effectiveness to enable it adapt itself to the challenges of change in the energy business environment and thus strengthen its ability to compete in the growing energy market.

He said the non-power operations of the VRA have been restructured and refocused to achieve both market objectives and organizational effectiveness.

The Power Minister noted that the companies had been registered and were prepared to improve their competitiveness as full-fledged, stand alone, self-financing subsidiary companies of the VRA.

Dr Donkor expressed the hope that the new board members would help to maximize the long-term shareholder value of government, and address the interests of all other stakeholders in these enterprises.

He said the members possessed extensive expertise in finance and law in the companies’ line of business, and were expected to demonstrate commitment, and enhance the corporate values for the shareholders.

Dr Donkor reiterated his pledge to end the current energy crises; saying “we want to fix the load-shedding problem for good”.

He expressed his conviction that no matter the obstacles, this generation of leaders would resolve the problem once and for all, adding, “come January 2016 if there is still load shedding, I will not sit on this chair.”

He recalled that in 2005, following the promulgation of a major amendment to the VRA Act in the context of the Ghana government power sector reforms, the VRA’s mandate was largely restricted to electricity generation.

He said the amendment has had a key function of creating the requisite environment to attract independent power producers onto the Ghana energy market.

He said subsequently the transmission function was separated into an entity, designated Ghana Grid Company, and in 2012 the VRA’s distribution agency, the Northern electricity distribution company was operationalized to stand alone as a full-fledged, autonomous, and self-financing commercial enterprise.

This was to remove the distribution bottleneck in the sector and attract investments.

Mr Lee Ocran, VRA Board Chairman, said the board must look for possible synergies between the subsidiaries in order to contribute to the strategic objectives of the VRA to justify the restructuring.

Dr Ken Sagoe, Chairman of VRA Hospital Services, said the members had accepted the challenges to contribute effectively to the core business of VRA to enhance its relevance to satisfy Ghanaians.