The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has donated copies of the Braille version of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) Report 2016, to the Balme Library, University of Ghana, Legon.

The gesture was to help enrich the Library’s stock of educational materials as far as Persons with Disability (PWD) suffering from blindness are concerned, as well as interact with the library’s authorities on ways in which the Centre can partner with the University to improve the education of PWDs towards the achievement of full inclusion as espoused by the SDGs.

In its quest to ensure that revenues and opportunities within the extractive industry benefits all citizens in Ghana through the inclusion of PWDs in the extractive sector, ACEP in 2018 developed the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) Report of 2016, into a Braille version. This is to enable PWDs who are blind get access to critical data in the extractive industry.

The primary activity of GHEITI is to help Ghana’s citizens understand how their extractive sector is governed, and this is accomplished through the production of annual reports about the extractive sector.

In an interaction with the authorities at the Balme Library, ACEP’s Head of Programmes, Alhassan Iddrisu, stated that “The essence of this (Braille version of the GHEITI Report 2016), is to raise the awareness that there are some groups that are marginalized.”

“(There exist) a lot of serious national documents that must be produced in both the printed version and the Braille version, so that no one is left behind” he added.

Mr. Iddrisu therefore, called on the government and the Ministries of Finance and Education, to consciously support inclusive education, particularly for the blind and PWDs in general.

Receiving the donation, the University Librarian, Prof. Perpetual Dadzie, expressed appreciation to ACEP for the donation and promised to ensure that the materials are put to good use.

In all, thirty (30) copies of the Braille version of the GHEITI 2016 Report, was presented to the Balme Library.