Yinson Ghana provides off-grid solar system for local school

Yinson Ghana, an oil and gas service company has provided an off-grid rooftop sustainable solar system for the Anlokrom Pretea Municipal Assembly (MA) Basic School in Ahanta West of the Western Region.

The school which hitherto did not have electricity, struggled to teach examinable subjects such as Information Communication Technology (ICT), due to the lack of electricity.

FPSO Agyekum Kufuor
The company, Yinson, which is also responsible for the operation and maintenance of the oil production platform, FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor, wired and provided each of the school’s twelve classrooms with lights, sockets and ceiling fans, washroom lights, and twenty security lights for the compound.

For the comfort of the teaching staff, Yinson additionally supplied a refrigerator and fire extinguishers for each of the three classroom blocks.

The headmaster of the school, Mr. Benjamin Yankey said the support came as a great relief since it would help ICT lessons. “Before, the teachers only took the students through the theory and not the hands-on training using the computer.”

10KW solar system
He said at present they have wired the entire block and hooked on to the 10KW solar system with accessories, light, sockets and fans to enhance teaching and learning.

“I must say that the solar system provided us was designed to provide uninterrupted power with the capacity to enable us use television sets, fans, refrigerators and computers independent of the national grid and without paying electricity bills,” he said.

ICT examination
The head teacher said the lack of electricity in the school with a population of about 312 pupils was a major setback for the teaching and learning of ICT which is a compulsory and an examinable subject for all.

He explained that when the weather gets dark, the rooms also become dark, “but now we have solar systems with LED-bulbs, we can now turn on the fans in the rooms, put the lights on to enhance illumination in the classroom.”

The school blocks in the community cluster, he said, were built without electrical wires, “therefore when the company initially donated some computers to us to support ICT training, they realised we did not have electricity, hence the decision for solar energy for us.”

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Coordinator of Yinson Ghana, Mr. Edward Mensah said the school which was not connected to the national grid, was located within its Western Region operational base in Kejabril, explaining that the school’s need for power supply came to light in 2019, when the company was looking for schools in the locality to benefit from its laptop project.

“When we realised that the Pretea MA Basic School did not even have a power supply, we shifted our focus towards helping with this essential need, and enhance the ICT lessons”, he said.

“We at Yinson are glad that today, students can now use the classrooms for evening classes, and we hope that the ceiling fans would provide comfort in the classrooms for both students and teachers,” he added.

He said it was the focus of the company to ensure that it directs its social performance projects towards the promotion of quality education, and its group-wide focus on contributing to the global transition towards a sustainable energy system.

Mr. Mark Adoba Adatekey, Ahanta West Municipal Director of Education said that education is everybody’s business and needs more attention.

“This is a public school, which should not be supported by government alone but individuals, philanthropists, and institutions among others” he said, and urged the school authorities to make maximum use of the power and affect positively students’ results.

Nana Kofi Yankom IV, Chief of Pretea thanked Yinson Ghana for supporting schools in the area and also called for good maintenance of the solar system.