Opinion › Feature Article       08.12.2018

On the Run: Government Must Capitalize on High Rate of Local Content in Oil Industry

In Ghana, it is called “Local Content,” that is, the legitimate economic and professional process by which a fair or legally acceptable percentage of native-born qualified Ghanaian citizens are employed by the largely foreign-owned and operated oil companies in the country. So far, the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears to be doing relatively far better than was achieved by the tandem Mills-Mahama-led regimes of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) originated news report captioned “Deputy Minister for Energy Unhappy with Some Oil Companies In Ghana” Ghanaweb.com 12/2/18), as of 2013, only some 4, 120 Ghanaian citizens were employed by the offshore oil industry. However, by October 2018, there was an exponential number of 13,000 Ghanaian citizens employed by the same oil industry. We are further informed that the latest figure represents more than 174-percent increase in “local content.”

This remarkable achievement must come as prime grist for the members of the New Patriotic Party’s Communication Team or Directorate, whichever the case may be. But first, the operatives of the ruling party’s Communication Team ought to establish both the number and percentage of Ghanaian citizens employed by the oil and gas industry between January 8, 2017, when the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party officially assumed the democratic reins of governance to the present. It is very likely that under the tenure of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, more indigenous Ghanaians have been hired by the proprietors and key operatives of the oil and gas industry than at any other time since 2009, when Ghana officially joined the global syndicate of the petroleum-producing countries. The NPP communicators could then do a statistical breakdown of the employment increase and inform the global Ghanaian public precisely how such a remarkable feat was achieved, and also precisely why the previous NDC regimes had not been able to notch the same socioeconomic feat.

We are also informed that during the two-year period that the New Patriotic Party has been at the helm of the people’s business, the oil industry has awarded $8.2 Billion worth of contracts involving the supply of goods and services, out of which $1.5 Billion, representing 18-percent, went to Ghanaian-owned companies, compared with the year 2013 when only $1.2 Billion in contractual awards were ceded Ghanaians by the same industry. Even more remarkably, we are informed that the two foremost oil companies operating in the country, namely, Tullow and ENI, awarded both wholly-owned and jointly-owned Ghanaian supply and service companies some $850 Million, representing a 44-percent increment. This is the kind of specialized news event that ought to be reaching the ordinary Ghanaian citizen on a daily basis but is, unfortunately, not reaching them.

You see, merely holding press conferences or appearing on television talking-heads and telling viewers and listeners that Nana Akufo-Addo and his crackerjack team of executive operatives are creating humongous numbers of jobs does not cut ice, as it were, unless specific numbers and well-researched impact statements can be brought down to the level of appreciation of the ordinary Ghanaian working man and woman. The NPP communications operatives need to be doing more of the preceding, if the largest and most progressive political party in the country is to be effectively retained both at the Jubilee House and Parliament House past December 2020.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
December 1, 2018
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

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