The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has engaged stakeholders in the petroleum industry in the Eastern Region of Ghana to familiarize themselves with the operation of the organization.
The engagement was to, among others, know the industry players and “understand their sentiments to be able to craft and execute a vision that resonates with the people within the organization.”
This is his first visit to the Eastern Region after assuming office about four months ago.
During his interaction with the media, Dr Hamid disclosed that the organization has already engaged some stakeholders including LPG marketers, Oil Marketing Companies, Tanker Drivers and Owners, Civil Society Organizations and others.
According to him, the industry is huge and contributes six per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said it is as a result of that, that the leadership of the NPA has been embarking on stakeholders’ consultations in the past four months and has promised to do more.
Dr Abdul-Hamid added that, as part of knowing the various organizations, the NPA has already had management retreats as they go about executing their mandate.
He said in the bid to prevent people from violating the rules of the NPA, they will engage the various security agencies to help get rid of that.
He affirmed that they are determined to strengthen their stakeholder relations to help them to do the kinds of work they intend to do.
The visit also took the CEO to the Eastern Regional Police Command at the Regional Police headquarters at Galloway, where he discussed with the security capo issues of cooperation between the NPA and the Ghana Police Service in terms of providing security for industry players, and help in the fight against fuel diversion, smuggling and other related irregularities that may occur in the course of doing business.
Reacting to prices of fuel in the country, he said, “We have done what is within our remit per law, which is that, we appealed to the President and being the sensitive President that he is, he agreed that the price stabilization and recovering levy be suspended for two months. The intended purpose of that suspension was so we could stabilize prices.
“I’m sure you know what the world’s situation is as far as petroleum prices are concerned. Everything is going up on the international market and so to that extent, we thought that this price stabilization and recovery levy was put there specifically for this purpose.
“So, we have done our bit and we were hopeful that in the November window, we do not see astronomical jumps at the pumps.”
However, Dr Hamid insisted the strategy of the NPA is working, having been able to stabilize the prices of fuel.
After the media interactions, he toured some of the fuel stations in Koforidua to check the works being done on the field.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com