Accra, May 12, 2026 — The Board of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has held its inaugural staff durbar at the company’s headquarters, reaffirming its commitment to operational resilience and excellence and commending staff for the rapid restoration of the Akosombo switchyard after the April 23 fire.
The durbar was attended by the full Board, comprising Board Chairlady Kuukua Maurice Ankrah; Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, Paramount Chief and President of the Akwamu Traditional Council; Nana Amoasi VII, Chief of Ekumfi Abor in the Central Region; Hon. Solomon Kuyon, Member of Parliament for the Krachi Nchumuru Constituency, Oti Region; Hon. Joseph Kwame Kumah, Member of Parliament for the Kintampo North Constituency, Bono East Region; Engineer Daniel Atchulo; and Alhaji Muhammed Bashiru Nii Narh Alema. Acting Chief Executive, Engineer Frank Otchere, and members of the senior management team were also present.
A historic occasion
The durbar marks the first time in GRIDCo’s history that the Board has convened a company-wide direct engagement with staff. The occasion reflected the Board’s commitment to transparency, open communication, and the deepening of institutional bonds across all levels of the organisation. Staff from GRIDCo’s various operational areas participated in the engagement, which included formal addresses from leadership as well as open interaction between the Board and employees.
Board Chairlady Kuukua Maurice Ankrah — a lawyer of 24 years’ standing and the first woman to chair GRIDCo’s board, and the only female board chair among the seventeen entities under the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition — highlighted the significance of the moment and the Board’s unequivocal support for management.
Kuukua Maurice Ankrah, who served on GRIDCo’s inaugural board from 2009 to 2013, brings rare institutional continuity to her role as chair, having witnessed the company’s growth from its founding era. Her reappointment reflects President John Mahama’s commitment to affirmative action and the placement of qualified women at the highest levels of Ghana’s public institutions.
Recognising an extraordinary restoration effort
The durbar provided the Board with a formal occasion to commend GRIDCo staff for their response to the April 23 fire, which damaged the switchyard control room at Akosombo and temporarily isolated the 1,020-megawatt Akosombo Generating Station from the national grid.
Working under demanding conditions, GRIDCo engineers executed a technical bypass of the destroyed control infrastructure, reconfigured protection settings, and restored generating units sequentially over the days that followed. The township transformer was back online by midnight on April 26, with all six generating units fully restored by May 1. The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission confirmed full restoration on May 4.
The Deborah of our time
Acting Chief Executive Engineer Frank Otchere, in his speech, renamed the Chairlady “Deborah.” Drawing on his role as a reverend minister, the Acting Chief Executive recounted the biblical story of Deborah — a woman who led men to war and to victory — and stated that GRIDCo has found in the Chairlady their Deborah.
He also paid tribute to the dedication shown by staff throughout the crisis.
“When adversities happen and we have men and women who are able to rise up to the occasion, it takes away all the negativities and reminds us of the abilities and strengths that we have. Let the spirit that we have seen through this Akosombo restoration continue through every facet of what we do, so that the name GRIDCo will soar high,” he said.
The Board also commended the seamless collaboration between GRIDCo and Volta River Authority (VRA) staff during the restoration.
“It was beautiful to see the collaboration between the VRA staff and the GRIDCo staff. You could not tell who was VRA, you couldn’t tell who was GRIDCo. That is the kind of unity that we want to see,” the Chairlady noted.
The restoration effort was further recognised at the national level, with President John Mahama visiting the Akosombo facility on the day full generation was restored and commending the teams on the ground for their work. The Chairlady credited the President’s personal engagement as a source of institutional endorsement.
Looking ahead
The Board used the occasion to signal GRIDCo’s forward commitment to infrastructure modernisation. The destroyed switchyard control room will be replaced with a state-of-the-art facility, and the company has indicated that the incident has reinforced the urgency of sustained investment in transmission infrastructure to safeguard national grid security.
The Board’s composition — spanning traditional authority, legislative representation, technical expertise, and commercial experience — positions GRIDCo to navigate the political and institutional complexity that a capital programme of this scale will require. Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, whose Akwamu Traditional Council’s jurisdiction encompasses the Akosombo area, was among the board members who visited the site the morning after the fire alongside the Board Chairperson and the Energy Minister, underscoring the Board’s hands-on engagement from the earliest hours of the crisis.
