Strategic investment in oil sector paying off — President Mahama

Ghana has begun exporting petroleum products to Nigeria and other neighbouring countries as the oil and gas industry continues to grow, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

He said recently 130,000 tonnes of the products was supplied to Nigeria.

Besides, every day 40 tankers of oil products are exported to Mali and Burkina Faso from the Bolgatanga Depot.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Japan in Tokyo yesterday, President Mahama said  the strategic investment in the sector was paying off.

Currently, he said, the country had eight-and-a-half weeks of strategic stock in place, adding that "the days of queuing for petrol are over. My vision is to make Ghana the petroleum hub of West Africa”.

He said since 2011 when the country started oil and gas production, Ghanaian companies had earned at least $1.5 billion in contracts.

Other investments

In education, health, roads and other sectors of the economy, he said, significant investments had been made which had started yielding dividends.

For instance, the Community Day Senior High Schools project had created opportunities for more than 4,000 children to continue their education.

President Mahama further stated that the quest to diversify the economy by adding value to primary products was on course.

"I have set a target to process at least half of our cocoa by 2020," he said.

Taxes

The President said Ghanaians were beginning to see the results of the taxes they paid, adding: "The increased revenue mobilisation is being given back to Ghanaians in the form of socio-economic infrastructure.”

He said there was the need to work on the minds of the people to pay their taxes.

"A lot of the time some of our people don't understand why they should pay taxes because they insist they set up their own businesses without government assistance,” he said. 

But, he said, it was the taxes that were used in building nations.

He said Ghana's tax revenue  was currently 18 per cent of total revenue, with only 30 per cent of the people paying taxes.

President Mahama and First Lady Lordina Mahama exchanging greetings with a section of the Ghanaian community in Japan

Resilient economy 

President Mahama stated that the economy was becoming more resilient, adding: "I am sure that our country can make it. It just happens that we are turning ourselves to be a country of cynics. We believe that nothing good can come out of Ghana.”

Ghana, he said, was doing well and currently it was the second largest economy in West Africa, after Nigeria.