Minister of Energy Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has shared some of his fondest memories while at a ministry he occupied in the first term of the Akufo-Addo government.
He said his “fondest moments” at the Ministry of Education were when he dialogued at the same table with professors on issues of education.
“I do like dialoguing with academia,” he said at the University of Ghana 75th Anniversary Public Lecture on Ghana’s Energy Sector on Wednesday, January 25.
“As the Minister of Education, I had plenty of it. You can’t count the number of professors who were sitting around my table and it was scary except to say that the best people I have ever dialogued with were the university lecturers in Ghana as the Education Minister.”
The Manhyia South Member of Parliament served as the Minister of Education between 2017 and 2021 but was appointed the Minister of Energy in 2021.
His place was given to one of his deputies, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who was one of the few deputy ministers to have been elevated to a ministerial position.
It was under Dr Opoku Prempeh that the government’s Free Senior High School Programme was introduced.
The Programme has since suffered some setbacks with reports that a review is imminent.
The reports also come at a time calls have heightened for a reshuffle of ministers in the current government.
But Dr Opoku Prempeh stressed: “I don’t want to go back to education but coming back here brings me fondest memories of education.”
He talked about the topic of the Public Lecture: ‘Energy Transitions: Reflections on the State of Ghana’s Oil and Gas Industry’, expressing commitment to providing the needed policy direction and leadership to ensure that Ghana is not left out in the energy transition regime across the globe.
The globe is transitioning to the use of cleaner forms of energy, leaving Africa in a position to do away with its wealth of naturally endowed fossil fuel.
The Energy Minister disclosed that gradually African leaders are buying into the strong advocacy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over the transition to use of clean energy at a time the continent is now making judicious use of the resource.