‘Local capacity in oil industry, necessary for national devt’
The Minister of Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has stated that Ghanaians should be seen to be playing key roles in the country’s oil and gas industry if the resources must propel national development.
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He said the desire of the government, as evidenced in its strategy for the industry, was to ensure that the sector did not become another enclave for resource exploitation largely dominated by foreign interests, as had been the case with other national resources.
The minister was contributing to a lecture to mark the Students Week celebration of the Petroleum Engineering Students Association (PESA) of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa in the Western Region.
Sponsored by Kosmos Energy, Ghana, the forum exposed students to the pros and cons of the oil and gas industry and how their knowledge in the industry could, among other issues, contribute to the further development of the industry.
Mr Buah said it was evident that the sector had the potential of providing the needed impetus for building a new growth pole in the economy, judging from its performance in areas where major oil and gas industries were located.
“In the same way, the government believes that the synergy between the oil and gas sector and the rest of the economy is critical for ensuring that the country achieves all-inclusive development and that the exploitation of its natural resources meets the needs and aspiration of the citizenry,” he said.
Objectives
Mr Buah said it was for that reason that the government’s objective had been to strengthen the capacity of local financial institutions to compete with their foreign counterparts for the opportunities in oil and gas project financing.
Aside financing, he said there was also the need to build local capacity in the industry, as well as diversify the economy with emphasis on the processing of raw materials.
Mr Buah said towards that end, the government had the strategy to ensure the utilisation of oil revenue in prioritised areas such as agriculture, infrastructure development, health, education, water and sanitation, education, rural development and poverty reduction.
Dr Gatsi
For his part, Dr John Gatsi, an economist and lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), who took the students through various aspects of the oil and gas industry, underscored the need for them to be careful about their expectations of the industry.
He advised the students not to focus only on the oil and gas industry but broaden their scope of knowledge and explore other opportunities through which they could contribute to the development of the country.