Under the programme which was launched in Accra on Tuesday, 200 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be provided with the capacity to gain competitive advantage in the oil and gas industry, while some 300 employees in public institutions are expected to be prepared to support the development of oil and gas policies and the enforcement of industry regulations.

The Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko, who launched the programme on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the initiative was in fulfilment of the government’s campaign promise to aggressively invest in education and skills enhancement for Ghanaians to participate meaningfully in the oil and gas industry.

The AOGC programme is expected to build the capacity of the beneficiaries in four thematic areas — technical, vocational and apprenticeship development and utilisation; capacity development of educational institutions; small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) capacity building and public institutional development and sector management.

The programme is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Energy to fill current skill gaps in the sector by strengthening the oil and gas industry.

Significant role

Launching the programme, Mr Agyarko said the oil and gas industry played a significant role in the economy of Ghana, and so in line with the government’s objective of creating jobs for the teeming masses of Ghanaian youth, the industry must serve as a major source of employment.

He said the only problem that existed was that many people had not acquired the requisite technical expertise to meet the often very high standards set by the oil companies.

The AOGC programme, he said, would guarantee that local service providers and personnel were given the requisite skills and technical know-how, from entrepreneurship to engineering, to strengthen their effective participation in the oil and gas sector, as well as allied industries.

He indicated that with the increased upstream activity, the number of petroleum activity local service providers and their personnel were expected to increase.

Therefore, the AOGC programme was well placed to prepare Ghanaians to take advantage of the massive opportunities that would be provided by the ongoing and new developments in the oil industry, he added.

Local Content and Participation

The minister said the passage of the Petroleum (Local Content and Participation) Regulations, 2013(LI 2204) had created a congenial legal environment that obliged international oil companies to have local components in their operations and a detailed succession planning strategy for graduation and incorporation of Ghanaians in their operations.

He directed the Petroleum Commission to ensure the full implementation of the regulations by ensuring that all oil companies, especially those involved in the provision of services, employed the technicians trained under the AOGC programme.

Caution

Mr  Agyarko said the government was committed to increasing upstream activity, particularly following the favourable judgment on the maritime boundary dispute with Cote d’Ivoire.

To that end, he cautioned all the companies holding oil blocks under the petroleum agreements to demonstrate their commitment to execute their contractual obligations.

More to be done

The acting Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, said from a modest level of localisation at the onset, currently, more than 62 per cent of people who worked in the industry were Ghanaians.

“What is pleasing is that Ghanaians are increasingly occupying senior management and core technical positions in the industry. We, however, concede that a lot more can be done and ought to be done,” he said

The Country Director of the World Bank Group for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dr Henry G. R. Kerali, commended Ghana for initiating the programme, saying it would ensure the continued capacity building programme beyond the support offered by the World Bank.