The Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has bemoaned Ghana’s over-reliance on imported refined petroleum products.
According to him, this makes Ghana vulnerable to global and external shocks.
On the back of the current Israel-Iran tensions, Ghana stands in the position to bear the brunt, even though the tensions broke just a few days ago.
COPEC said Ghana should not have to feel the impact immediately, but that is not the case since the country has no buffers.
“We should not be feeling the impact [of global price shocks] this immediately. But as it stands now, our buffers are all down,” he was quoted by citinewsroom.com.
Amoah added that there is a need for urgent reforms in Ghana’s energy sector to reduce the reliance on fuel imports.
He noted that the dependence exposes the country to fuel price hikes in the event of geopolitical tensions.
“There is a lot of geopolitical tension. We cannot continue to be price seekers, we cannot continue to be global observers. We cannot continue to allow international Oil Marketing Companies to come down here, take our hydrocarbon resources and ship everything back to Europe, go refine and process them, and then we will go back with our cargos for the refined product to our country for $400 every month,” he noted.
He indicated his confidence in the current sector minister’s ability to handle the situation and make reforms that reduce the dependency.
“That strategy has also got to change. I think that the current energy minister, John Jinapor, if anybody can fix the situation, should be better placed. We will urge him to re-strategise and get Ghana to be a global observer.
“Anytime the prices go up, our economy is busted completely, and then things have to go back because Iran is fighting Israel. We should not be feeling this impact immediately,” he added.
SSD/AE
