Use local content to create jobs – Veep

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has charged oil companies to use the local content policy as the basis to create employment for the people.

He said when local people whose areas the resource fund are are not included in the benefits to be derived, they feel alienated from the whole programme.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur made the comment when he received a delegation from Baker Hughes Company at the Flagstaff in Accra.

The objective of the delegation to the Flagstaff House was to reiterate their commitment to Ghana and to summarize their activities that they invested in the country as well as their strategies for the future.

The company which is a global oilfield service industry leader strives to operate in a sustainable manner. Baker Hughes currently employs people in more than 80 countries, and work to promote safety and reduce the environmental impact of developing oil and natural gas.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur also stated that the local content policy was supposed to encourage companies or provide the basis for them to employ.

He urged oil companies to provide skills training for their local staff, to bring them to required level that they want, rather than bringing in expatriates.

Mr Arthur Saucy, President of EARC, Baker Hughes, stated that the company was providing work experience as well as purchasing local goods.

He said currently the company was training general managers to recruit local technical expertise to replace off-shore engineers who had come from abroad to work in the country.

He said though at the moment the country did not have much of the skilled personnel, however, later, it could through technology transfer, replace the expatriates