Businessmen urge government to let Ghana’s oil find create jobs for local people

The Western Regional branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) on Monday held a day’s seminar on the benefits of the oil find with a call on the government to rope in qualified local people in the emerging industry.

They also asked that substantial part of the revenue generated from the oil fields which is along the coast of Cape Three Points in the Western Region should be channelled into developing to open up the area.

The members appealed to the government not to allow total foreign dominace of the country’s economy and create enough room for Ghanaian entrepreneurs can operate.

The seminar, held in collaboration with the Parliamentary caucus from Sekondi-Takoradi and Nzema area aimed at discussing the Oil and Gas industry’s local content and participation framework.

It also aimed at collating views on how the oil find could benefit the local entrepreneurs and the entire region for onward submission to Parliament through the Member of Parliament for Takoradi to be factored into the oil bill to be laid before the house possibly to be passed into law.

Making a presentation, Mr. Ato Van Ess, Western Regional Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, regretted that since the oil find in the country in 2007 no arm of government has invited the members for any briefing or training on what entails in the project.

He however, said members in a bid to know details of the project have drawn up a comprehensive education programme to reposition themselves to take up challenges in the oil and gas prospects.

Mr. Van Ess hoped that foreign experts working in the industry would train Ghanaians who would be working there to take over from them.

The Chairman said to achieve the proposed 90 percent target in ten years, Ghanaian youth must acquire skills which would qualify them to gain jobs in the industry to actualise the call for their inclusion.

Addressing the seminar, Mr. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, MP for Takoradi said indigenous business men and women in a limbo as to what to do or where to turn to in order to participate in the oil industry since the “oil and gas business in Ghana had become a base for foriengn businesses”.

He said for instance that “CTK aviation just lost its contract with Tullow Oil Project when they changed their requirement without pre-information”.

With the first oil production expected to begin in the last quarter of this year with an initial production of 120,000 barrels a day, the MP entreated Ghanaian companies to look for ways to optimise their local content supplies since all expenditures would be made from Ghana’s crude.

“It is for this reason that we are happy that government has completed its draft final policy framework on local content started in 2007, intended to ‘Ghanaianise’ the oil and gas industry while managing its sustainability though recognising the challenges faced in the areas of finance, human resource capacity and technology”.

Calling for full participation of local entrepreneurs in the industry, Mr. Darko-Mensah said local journalists must also be trained in the oil and gas industry to be able to report on it adequately instead of bringing down colleagues from Accra to report events in the industry.

Awulae Annor Adjaye, the second, Paramount Chief of Western Nzema, and President of the Beyin Traditional Council, advised the members to concentrate on their businesses and not to meddle in politics which has the tendency of collapsing what they have built through hardwork and commitment.

Source: GNA