Oil and gas industry calls for training – Researcher
A researcher of the Labour Research and Policy Institute of the Trade Union Congress, has called on training institutions in the oil industry to ensure that their curricula reflect the skill needs.
Mr Prince Asafu-Adjaye said: “Ensuring effective participation of the citizenry requires the availability of skilled Ghanaians with relevant skills for the oil and gas industry,” he stressed.
Mr Asafu-Adjaye gave the advice at a three-day oil and gas programme organised by the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) in collaboration with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO-Norway) in Accra.
He said it is important that local content laws and local provisions in oil agreements are effectively implemented to ensure a positive impact on the people to become a blessing and not a curse as had always been the case in many countries.
The researcher noted that the biggest challenge faced by most oil producing countries are foreign interests meddling in internal politics, the negative activities of some multinational oil corporations and corruption by local politicians.
Making oil and gas a blessing, to avoid the resource curse, which had plagued many African states, Mr Asafu-Adjaye said called for good fiscal regime backed by political commitment, strong discipline in spending and emphasis on prioritised economic infrastructure development such as transport, energy and power, agriculture as well as social investments.
He said there should be transparency in award of contracts, revenue and environmental management to enable the oil and gas find become a blessing to the nation.
Mr Asafu-Adjaye said to avert the adverse environmental impact of the oil and gas industry such as oil leakages and spills, gas flaring and deforestation; the country required effective institutional monitoring as well as active community involvement, civil society organisations, Trade Unions and a vibrant media.
Mr Emmanuel Armstrong Mensah, General Secretary of the GTPCWU said production of oil in many countries in the continent has not brought high standard of living for the people hence the need for Trade Unions in Ghana to take up the issue of oil and gas as a priority to protect the interest of workers and the people to make the commodity a blessing.
Source: GNA