Ghana: Calls For Scrapping Of BDCs Are Short-sighted—Dr Patrick Ofori

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Dr Patrick Ofori, has described calls by a section of Ghanaians that the institution has outlived its usefulness so it is scrapped as thinking of short-sightedness.

The Bulk Oil Distribution Companies were created during the John Agyekum Kufuor administration when the country experienced fuel shortages as a result of industrial actions by the staff of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

Speaking exclusively to energynewsafrica.com recently, Dr Ofori cited the lack of liberalisation in countries like Nigeria, resulting in occasional fuel shortages which are affecting their rapid socioeconomic development.

Dr Ofori argued that people saying the institution has outlived its usefulness is addicted to subsidies and do not want the private sector which is the engine of economic growth to speed Ghana’s development.

According to him, the BDCs who are private sector operators in Ghana contribute about 70 to 75 per cent of its overall haulage of petroleum products, and this has stopped the perennial shortages the country experienced in the past.

“So if they have not taken these initiatives to build that, you can image the cues and others. We look at Nigerian where the NNPC Limited tries to cover everything and that demonstrated the fuel shortages that they encountered because once it’s centred around one institution, if there are any hiccups, it becomes a problem for the system the grid,” he illustrated.

Touching on the number of employment the BDCs have offered to Ghanaians, he said that should they close the fuel tank farms, trading and other affiliate services, neither Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) nor BOST can offer these thousands of people jobs, which would affect the already suffering health of Ghana’s economy.

Dr Ofori also asked whether the government could have carried the high losses that hit the sector recently, arguing that the BDCs helped by taking that responsibility.

According to him, the government used monies saved from such occurrences to invest in other sectors of the country to speed up socio-economic growth.

Sadly, he observed that no bank or insurance company in Ghana has the financial muscle to help operators in the sector to import petroleum products into the country, saying that it spends over US$100 million to bring in the products just for two vessels, which is equivalent to the threshold or obligation limit for the Ghanaian banks to operate, so it means a lot of investment is need to build more capital to trigger growth in the petroleum sector.

He said even with the operations of the BDCs, IOTCs play alongside the petroleum distribution chain and, therefore, stressed the need for stakeholders and government to build capital to help the sector in the face of changes to meet international standards practices.

Dr Ofori urged the players in the industry not to downplay the role of any government in the sector, saying the government has taken a key risk element in the business and needs to be lauded.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com