Protection of indigenous industries needed for oil management – Minister
Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister, on Thursday said the protection of local indigenous industries was relevant to manage the oil industry.
He said the situation where many Ghanaian industries collapsed due to the influx of imported goods must not be allowed to prevail in the oil sector.
Speaking at the Eastern Regional Public Forum on the oil resources management, he mentioned the trend where even retail businesses had been taken over by foreign companies.
He called for stringent measures by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) to ensure that Ghanaians benefited in the area of direct employment in the oil industry.
He said the polytechnics ought to be well resourced to train the requisite manpower for the sector.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said God in his own wisdom had allowed the oil find at a time when the nation had learnt from the experiences of countries like Nigeria and Angola and therefore must be guided by that.
Mr Ben Asante of the GNPC earlier in a presentation said, currently 12 oil companies were operating in the offshore of Western, Central, Eastern and Volta basins.
He said 120,000 barrels of oil a day and 120 million cubic unit of gas were expected to be produced at the Jubilee Oil field at the Cape Three Point.
Dr Yaw Amoako-Tufuor, Special Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, said for transparency and better management of the resources, there was the need to create petroleum account where all monies accruing from the oil business would be deposited.
Participants at the forum said Ghana over the years had the opportunity to manage natural resources like cocoa, timber and gold but many Ghanaians had not benefited from them and that must not be the case of the oil find.
They, therefore, called for stringent measures to ensure that the oil become a blessing to all Ghanaians to avert the aggressiveness that had characterized most of the oil-rich countries on the continent.
Source: GNA