The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) is kicking against the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) plans to relocate the headquarters of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to the Western Region.
Speaking at a media interaction in Accra, the Head of Policy Unit of ACEP, Dr. Ishmael Ackah said the decision will put policy makers in a tight corner, since oil exploration will commence in some other regions as well. The NPP among other things promised to move GNPC to the Western Region to enable them benefit more from the oil proceeds.
The Head of Policy Unit of ACEP, Dr. Ishmael Ackah is however proposing an establishment of subsidiary offices rather than relocating the headquarters to the oil hub region.
“We believe that it is not something that was well thought through because very soon we are going to produce oil in the Volta Region so are we going to shift GNPC from the Western Region to the Volta Region.
We can maintain GNPC here and rather open a subsidiary office probably for operations in the Western Region. What we can also suggest is that instead of GNPC, we can rather move Petroleum Commission which is the regulator to the Western Region.”
President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo repeated his pledge to relocate the headquarters of GNPC when he visited the Western Regional house of Chiefs in Sekondi during a tour of the region to thank the chiefs and people for their support and prayers. During his visit,Nana Addo added that he will also make the region the hub of oil and gas when he assumes office.
“The commitments that we have made are commitments that are going to be fulfilled.
They were not platform or campaign talk. They were full commitments that we made… We are going to relocate the headquarters of GNPC to this region,”he said.
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