The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) in the Republic of Ghana, Senyo Hosi has underscored the need for the government of the West African nation to engage its counterpart in neighbouring country, Mali, in order to resolve some pertinent issues which have reduced the volumes of petroleum products exported from Ghana into the Malian market.
He said Ghana’s ability to ensure that these bottlenecks were addressed would enhance growth in the sector.
It has emerged that the volumes of petroleum products imported by Mali from Ghana have dropped significantly due to demand for bank guarantee, which requires a 100 percent cash payment, currency differential and National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA’s) exporting guidelines.
Senyo Hosi observed that the Sahelian market presents a very good opportunity for Ghana to take advantage, explaining that Ghana can supply 50 percent of the demand by Malian market.
He made this call when a delegation from Mali’s National Office for Petroleum Products (ONAP) paid a courtesy call on CBOD.
“Our conversations have been mainly focused on optimizing the service quality and our competitiveness to be a dominant contributor to their market. Ghana is currently doing just 1% of the Malian consumption. We have lost grounds significantly to the likes of Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Niger as well. Our ability to grow will be dependent on our ability to penetrate our landlocked or Sahelian markets. Our ability to optimize the utilization of our assets particularly the storage facilities we have in Ghana will also be dependent on our ability to influence the volumes that are triggered in the landlocked countries.”
Hosi identified one of the barriers to effective trading between Ghana and these countries as currency differentials.
He, therefore, recommended that modalities be defined to enhance effective trading in the ECOWAS sub-region.
“We trade in dollars and them in CFA so the benchmark will be Euro,” he said.
He added that efforts should be made to reduce transaction cost to make business in the sub-region to propel competitiveness.
He also urged Ghana to make her Bolga depot strategic to serve Mali, Burkina Faso and the other Sahelian market.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com