Despite the claim by Akufo-Addo government that, it is cutting down on public expenditure, institutions under the Energy Ministry, continue to blow hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars traveling out of the country, in the name of sourcing foreign investments.
Insiders say, most of these investment trips, have brought no benefit to the country, because Ghanaian state officials on the trip, end up addressing rooms full of subordinates they had flown on expensive flights and lodged into luxurious hotels.
The latest trip by institutions under the Energy Ministry is the 2022 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, USA, where the Ghanaian delegation led by Deputy Energy Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, claimed to have held a Ghana Investment Forum on the sidelines of conference, but ended speaking to members of the delegation, because the intended investors did not show.
Coming on the heels of a similar forum held during the Dubai Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with President Nana Akufo-Addo in attendance, with hundreds of thousands of dollars blown, many analysts are beginning to question the benefits of these programmes to the country.
They argue that Ghana, has participated in the last five to six OTC with huge entourage, including Parliamentarians from both the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), but it is difficult to quantify the investments which have come in from these trips, as against the huge sums pumped into the conferences.
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On the current trip were officials of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) led by its Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Opoku-Ahweneeh Danquah, Petroleum Commission led by its CEO, Egbert Faibille and some officials of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). Also at the conference is Della Sowah, NDC MP for Kpando in the Volta region.
Addressing a Ghana Investment Forum on behalf of Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, sector Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, announced that the country would soon commence a process to offer new oil blocks for exploration through direct negotiations in the Western, as well as the Eastern Basins.
This, he said, is part of enhanced exploration strategies aimed at not only replacing Ghana’s reserves, but to also accelerate extraction to support economic growth.
Dr Amin Adam, said the country is seeking to maximize resources in producing areas and therefore the Ministry will continue to improve the enabling environment for investments through legal and regulatory reforms.
“For example, the government over the last two years amended petroleum regulations to allow for exploration in production and development areas without a requirement for a new petroleum agreement. We also provided flexibility in determining the size of a development and production area to prevent potential assets near the field from being stranded” he said.
He further indicated that in spite of the global energy transition, Africa’s oil, will continue to play a strategic role as oil fields globally are depleting faster than the decline in global demand. This he said requires continued investment in new capacity prioritizing low-cost production areas. “Ghana is well positioned as production cost remains low in our country.
Further to this, our investment environment is very enabling and has been considered one of the most liberal in Africa. Our petroleum fiscal regime adequately rewards investment capital, provides fiscal stability and certainty against future adverse developments” he added
Earlier at the official opening of the Ghana pavilion, the deputy energy minister described Ghana’s oil investment climate has been touted as the most liberal not just in the West African sub-region but the whole Africa, adding Ghana’s petroleum fiscal regime is investor friendly offering higher returns to investors.
He added that the licensing regime is transparent, and provides investor certainty and flexibility, and also accommodates different financial products including risk capital, as well as concessional facilities for the development of our oil and gas resources.
“Our oil basins are largely derisked, especially the Western Basin which contains about 80 prospects and 40 discoveries. This means that the potential to make a discovery when you invest in exploration in Ghana is very high” he noted.
Dr Amin Adam, who also represents the people of Karaga in Parliament, expressed satisfaction at the increased participation of both the private and public sector at the conference.
In his view, this shows that the potential for growing Ghana’s petroleum and energy industries is huge; and the prospects for accelerating the growth of the economy are much brighter in the future.
“As already demonstrated by data from the Ghana Statistical Service, real economic growth rate in 2021 is about 5.4% which outperformed what was projected at 4.4%, a strong indication of the return of our economy to pre-COVID times”.
He continued “The recovery of our economy means that we must position our oil and gas industry to play its strategic role of generating more revenue for the state, creating jobs for our people, adding value to the economy and improving our trade balance. This calls for greater partnership between Ghanaian businesses and foreign investors”.
