The National Democratic Congress (NDC), says in order to propel accelerated economic growth, rapid industrialization and job creation, their government when voted into power will prioritize the use of the country’s oil and gas resources.
At the launch of their manifesto in Accra, the presidential candidate of the party, John Dramani Mahama, outlining his plans revealed that, the NDC will set Ghana on the path to achieving production of one million barrels of oil per day (bpd) by 2030.
The NDC noted in its manifesto that, policies will be adopted to ensure maximum benefit from the sector and also ensure transparency in the sector.
“The NDC government will adopt policies and programmes that will ensure that all Ghanaians derive maximum benefits from our petroleum resources, restore investor confidence and ensure transparency in the sector and ensure strict adherence to the provisions of the petroleum sector regulations and laws.”
The party added that, the NDC government will make the allocation of exploration and production rights transparent and commercially effective.
Addressing plans for the downstream oil sector, The NDC said its government will ensure value addition to petroleum resources and restore and reposition various downstream operation institutions.
“The next NDC Government will ensure value addition to our petroleum resources; reposition the Tema Oil Refinery to process our own crude oil, restore BOST to its core mandate of holding a national strategic stock in order to cushion the erratic price increase associated with the absence of fuel stock in the country, expand the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to meet the national demand for gas-related products and aggressively promote LPG use as a substitute for wood fuel.”
It added that, the NDC will revert to the use of Landing Beach Committees for pre-mix fuel distribution and management to ensure transparency.
Still on extractives, the mining sector of the country according to the NDC will partner with mining equipment owners to support small-scale miners due to equipment challenges the sector faces.
Also, mini-processing plants will be established in strategic mining locations to support and improve metallurgical recovery of mined ore, leading to increased revenue generation
The party further added that,
“The NDC government will take stock of existing large-scale mining concessions to make abandoned lands available for small and medium scale mining operations; promote environmentally friendly small-scale and community mining operations, ensure that licensed small-scale mining companies operate strictly in accordance with improved operational procedures to minimize negative environmental impacts and encourage chiefs in mining areas to take an interest in in community mining processes to ensure that the environment is preserved, and local communities benefit from the revenue.”
The NDC said it will link royalty payments to targeted community developmental projects to address the increasing demands by host communities, review the structure of the Mineral Development Fund to ensure that mining communities benefit from social responsibility practices.
Finally it said,
“The NDC government will; engage trained earth science graduates, including mining engineers, geological engineers, geomatic engineers, metallurgical engineers and environmental engineers , ensure restoration of water bodies and the reclamation of lands, keep abreast with enhanced technology by promoting the use of industry 4.0 imperatives like robotics, automation and digitization and put an immediate end to the intimidations, victimization, physical attacks and monetary extortions of monitoring teams towards miners.”
