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World Facility Management Day: IFMA-Ghana touts achievement
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Mr Sampsong Opare-Agyemang addressing the press
The President of the Ghana Chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA-Ghana), Mr. Sampson Opare-Agyemang, has expressed satisfaction at the progress made by the association since its inception but says there is work to be done as practitioners prepare to mark this year’s World Facility Management (FM) Day.
Speaking at the launch of the event in Accra last Friday, he said the association has over the years equipped experts with the essentials of facility management and continued to encourage educational institutions to roll out programmes in facility management.
The overall objective of the training, advocacy and other initiatives of the association, according to him, was to ensure that there were enough professionals to safeguard the longevity of private and public facilities in the country.
He said the association had trained and certified about 99 facility managers across the country and continued to engage the government and institutions on the essence of facility management and the services practitioners render property owners.
IFMA-Ghana marks this year’s World Facility Management Day on May 10, 2023 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi) on the theme: “Facility Management Making a Real Difference in Ghana.” Speakers from academia, government and other stakeholders are expected to make presentations, interact and share experiences relevant to the industry.
The occasion, Mr Opare-Agyemang said, was to celebrate the achievement of the facility management community and the impact the profession continues to make across sectors.
“World FM day is a day of recognition for facility managers and the entire profession. It is a time to celebrate the heroes behind the scenes of the built environment and share well-deserved thanks for keeping our facilities healthy, safe and productive.”
“The challenge today in our built environment is not just bad maintenance culture but lack of trained manpower and the lack of understanding of the value of facility management by government, business owners and financial institutions,” he said.
Mr Opare-Agyemang, therefore, stressed the need to incorporate routine maintenance culture to ensure sustainability of private and public properties.
IFMA Ghana is part of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). Founded in 1980, IFMA is the most widely recognized International Association for facility management professionals, supporting 24,000 members in 104 countries.
IFMA Offers professional advancement through credentialing programs and provides a wide range of educational courses, from entry-level programs to those for highly experienced facility managers.
The Ghana Chapter, approved in August 2009, currently has over 300 members working at various institutions.
By Ernest Nutsugah
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy has appealed to the Ministry of Finance to release GH¢5.6 million to the Petroleum Commission to enable it to establish and operate a world-class data centre.
According to the Committee, access to the funds will strengthen the Commission’s capacity to manage critical upstream petroleum data and improve its operations.
Speaking during the appeal, Chairman of the Committee, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, said the move was crucial to efforts to revitalise Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry and increase oil production.
He noted that although investment and hydrocarbon production had declined in recent years, Parliament’s approval of an extension of the petroleum agreement to 2030 had attracted additional funding and contributed to an increase in production from about 80,000 to 120,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, concerns have been raised over repeated budget allocations for oil exploration in the Voltaian Basin.
Mr. Bedzrah stressed that funds approved for exploration must produce tangible results, adding that the Committee would require clear evidence of progress before supporting future budget allocations for the programme.
The appeal was made during a working visit to the Petroleum Commission as part of the Committee’s oversight activities to assess its operations and management procedures.
During the engagement, the Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Emeafa Hardcastle, took the Committee through the Commission’s working procedures and mandate, which includes regulating, managing and coordinating upstream petroleum activities.
She disclosed that since assuming office in 2025, government had pursued measures to reverse the decline in crude oil production, sustain output and reposition Ghana as an attractive destination for investment in Africa’s increasingly competitive petroleum sector.
In addition, she said government had secured fresh commitments of about US$35 billion to help revitalise the sector.
As part of the oversight exercise, the Committee is expected to conclude its monitoring visit with engagements at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL).
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
News
“No civilisation deserves to be annihilated” – Mahama calls for dialogue on global conflicts at UNGA 81
President John Dramani Mahama has called for solidarity and dialogue in resolving global conflicts, insisting that no civilisation deserves to be wiped out.
“No human civilisation deserves to be annihilated, certainly not a member state of the United Nations,” President Mahama stated in his address at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He called for solidarity with nations facing terrorism, especially the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and for a uniform approach to conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
On the Middle East, the President called for a return to negotiations, saying “The current Middle East crisis is having a deleterious effect on the world economy.”
“I believe that dialogue can resolve even the most intractable of problems,” he added.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
