Involve local consulting engineering firms in infrastructure projects – GCEA urges govt

Ing. Magnus Lincoln Quarshie, the newly elected President of the Ghana Consulting Engineers Association (GCEA), has called on the government and other stakeholders to involve local consulting engineering as lead firms and promote joint ventures in the design and building of this infrastructure development.

Speaking after his election at the 2021 annual general meeting of the association held in Accra he stressed the need for a local content policy and act.

“It appears to be so much going on, however, many of our local firms are either not involved; and in some cases, they are like third-party participants. As a country with a huge deficit of infrastructure, her engineering firms are key and cannot be bystanders or relegated to the background,” he explained.

Ing. Magnus added that the consulting industry, like in the other organized countries, was a key driver for industry and academia relationships where many students go through internships and mentorship.

He said, “this would not happen with the going trend where local consulting businesses do not thrive.”

Ing. Quarshie takes over from Ing. Albert Viala des Bordes, who has successfully run his term of office.

Ing. Quarshie comes to this position with a wealth of experience having been President of the Ghana Institution of Engineering in 2014/15.

He was also the President of the West African Federation of Engineering Organisations from 2015-2017.

He holds a B. Sc degree in Civil Engineering from KNUST, an M.Sc in Transportation and Road Engineering from TU/IHE Delft, The Netherlands and an MBA in Leadership and Sustainability from the University of Cumbria, UK.

He is currently the CEO of Delin Consult, a civil engineering and management consulting firm. He is a fellow of the GhIE.

In his acceptance speech, Ing. Quarshie eulogized the founding fathers of GCEA who through their toil have brought the association this far.

He made a special mention of some living legends and founding fathers of GCEA like Ing. Asare Yeboah and Team Associated Consultants, Ing. Akwaboah, Ing. Joe Okyere and Ing. Albert Ogyiri.

Ing. Quarshie stated that Africa, and for that matter, Ghana was the best place engineers should be at this time in terms of infrastructure development.

The GhIE 2016 infrastructure report card which focused on water, energy and the transportation sectors revealed that Ghana’s Infrastructure level is graded D.

Evidently, it is a case of building to fit the purpose, needless to say, building infrastructure that lasts forever”, Ing. Quarshie added.