The Gas Challenge: University of Ghana Beats GCTU And TTU To Progress

The third edition of “The Gas Challenge” which was organised by the Ghana National Gas Company took place Thursday 27 October 2022 at the R S Amegashie Auditorium, University of Ghana, Legon.

The theme for this year’s edition is “Embracing the future together: the indispensable role of Gas in facilitating socio-economic growth and development”.

In attendance were the deputy minister of education, John Ntim Fordjour, a board member of the Ghana National Gas Company, John Darko and staff of the Ghana National Gas Company.

The competition, which is geared towards demystifying the gas industry saw competitors from the University of Ghana (UG), who were nicknamed “propane” for the purposes of the gas challenge, Ghana Communications Technical University (GCTU), who were nicknamed “methane” and the Tamale Technical University (TTU), who were nicknamed “butane”.

The UG team came out as winners with 66 points, followed by GCTU with 48 points and TTU with 42 points at the end of the first preliminary stage of the competition.

Aim of quiz

The CEO of the Ghana National Gas Company, Dr Ben K D Asante, said that the quiz aimed at educating the public on the operations in the gas industry in Ghana.

“What you see here today and what indeed has brought us here today is just a modest step to try to create awareness along the entire gas value chain, as well as deepen the knowledge of both industry and academia in the gas value chain,” Asante said.

He added: “I’m talking about all the way from the exploration and production end. Through the gathering, the processing and transmission of the gas and then at the tail end which is the downstream end, we look at distribution and utilisation of the gas.

“The Ghana Gas Challenge that has brought us all here today is the first step of many that we hope will come to deepen the knowledge of the Ghanaian population at large and with this particular focus, the tertiary institutions around the country.”

Innovation
Also, the Ministry of Education called on corporate institutions to institute educational programmes that encourage students to be creative and innovative in solving challenges in the society.

Ntim Fordjour said the aim of “The Gas challenge” is in line with the education ministry’s policies since it seeks to explore creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills of students in the 21st century.

“We congratulate Ghana Gas for this brilliant platform they have created and consistently since 2019, it’s been a platform that showcases creativity, that showcases practical problem-solving, team-building, it showcases critical thinking ability and innovation.

“You definitely cannot participate successfully in this platform and this challenge if verbatim and road memorisation is your style and therefore we encourage other corporate organisations, particularly those in technical agencies to emulate this worthy example set by Ghana Gas,” Fordjour said.

“I’m aware that many participants who have gone through this platform have earned themselves some brilliant career with Ghana Gas and some other opportunities that have been made available to them.

“In our 21st century, in our 4th industrial revolution era, the way to go is critical thinking, innovation. We’re moving away from verbatim reproduction of what the lecturer tells you and the road memorisation can’t solve any problem,” he said.

The semi-finals contest is expected to be held in Cape Coast.

The GNGC is organising this year’s edition under the auspices of Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Samira Bawumia Foundation and other various stakeholders in the oil and gas sector and the media.