Government urged to utilize oil revenue to nation's benefit

Tema, April 17, GNA - Panelists at a public lecture on Ghana's emerging oil industry have asked the government to guard against concentrating too much on the oil to the detriment of other sectors of the economy. They held that too much concentration on the oil find has the tendency to put pressure on other sources of revenue generation and plunge the nation into socio-economic hardships.

Speakers at the lecture included Dr Kofi Kodua Sarpong, Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper and Mr Robert Kwabena Poku-Kyei, Special advisor to the Minister of Finance. Their topic was: "Ghana's oil find a curse or a blessing." They stressed on the need to utilize the oil revenue judiciously to develop the entire nation for the benefit of all. The lecture was organised by the Tema Chapter of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The two speakers said the sustenance of other sectors such as agriculture, to complement the oil industry would ensure rapid progress.

Mr Pratt and Dr Sarpong said the curse or blessing of the oil discovery would largely depend on how revenue generated from the industry would be utilized. Dr Sarpong suggested the setting up of an investment fund which should be assessed for the promotion of industrialization and ensure that there is a reserve of oil against future generation. He called for policy measures that would make it mandatory for the oil companies to recruit local skilled personnel, noting that often expatriates come along with their staff to the detriment of the local people. This however, requires that the local people should develop their skills to enable them qualify for the job.

Mr Pratt called on managers of the emerging oil sector to be guided by the success and failures of others producing countries. He said the Western Region oil find was not the first such discovery in the country, saying there was some find in Saltpond in the Central Region bit it did not work because of mismanagement. He expressed doubts as to whether the current oil project would be managed to the benefit the entire nation because other foreign exchange commodities such as mineral resources and cocoa "have in no way improved the lives of Ghanaians". To avoid mismanagement of the oil resources, Mr Pratt stressed the need to institute stiff punishment against corruption to serve as deterrent.

In his presentation, Mr Poku-Kyei reassured that the emerging oil industry would be managed to the benefit of the entire nation. "We cannot let the people down and government is ready for the challenge, he stated, adding that the government was aware of the challenges faced by some of the oil producing countries and would take lessons from them. He said it was in line with this that the government initiated measures to design plans to minimize the dangers and maximize returns for the benefit of the entire citizenry. "Government certainly cannot afford the mistakes of others, we certainly have to learn from what has happened in other countries," Mr Poku-Kyei said, adding that the emerging oil sector would consolidate the diversification of the nation's revenue base. The lecture was chaired by Mr Paul Victor Obeng, former Presidential Advisor in the erstwhile PNDC regime, now Managing Director of OB Associates.