"Oil and gas, not the magic wand"- Vice President

Accra, Feb 24, GNA- Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday reminded Ghanaians that the oil and gas find in the country was not the magic wand to conjure all socio-economic progress in the country. Instead, he called on Ghanaians to take advantage of the discovery to explore other avenues such as catering, tourism, entertainment and industry to better their lots and create job opportunities for others. Vice President Mahama was interacting with a delegation from Trinidad and Tobago and their Ghanaian collaborators from Jomoro and Ellembelle in the Western Region who had called on him at the Castle, Osu to unveil their investment plans for those areas.

The Trinidad and Tobago delegation are in the country to establish an industrial Estate and Energy City in the Nzema area of the country, while the chiefs of the area have also expressed the interest in releasing land for the purpose for a number of years. He said although the discovery of oil and gas was to augment the financial stand of the country, it was far from solving all the economic challenges.

He expressed satisfaction that the delegation from Trinidad and Tobago were having negotiations to avoid negative repercussions that oil, gas and mining had created in other African countries. The Vice President advised the investors to involve Ghana National Petroleum Corporation {GNPC} in all their negotiations so that further negotiations on the use of gas could be made to avoid losses in their projects.

"The oil and gas production in the country is on course and I am particularly happy that Trinidad and Tobago is expressing interest to invest as they have a lot of experience in the oil and gas industry". Madam Ann Marie De Silva, leader of the delegation, appealed to the government to make natural gas available for them to succeed in their intentions of establishing an industrial estate in the country.

She said they were doing all feasibility studies for all the projects while an assurance letter for the projects had also been submitted to the World Bank for their endorsement for those projects. Owulae Annor Adjei III, one of the chiefs of the area, said the land for those projects would not be sold to the investors as the land was also for generations to come. He said the people of the ar ea had given the investors up to 2015 to demonstrate their capability of making good use of the land or risk losing the opportunity while a memorandum of understanding had been signed in that respect. 24 Feb.10