ISODEC rallies experts for oil & gas dialogue

Central Accra is expected to be busy on Tuesday, April 9 2013 as the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) is set to host senior policy officials, civil society leaders, private sector people, researchers and experts in a jaw-jaw on the nation’s toddler oil and gas industry.

“We have particularly been mindful of the nation’s inability in the past, to adequately tap benefits from the extractive sector, especially with lessons from the mining sector,” ISODEC revealed in a concept note for Tuesday’s meeting.

“The aim is therefore to begin a discussion on the likely economic impact of Ghana’s Oil and Gas sector” by bringing together such key stakeholders to discuss the wider Ghanaian economy and how best to positively interface the Oil and Gas sector and the wider economy for the desirable multiplier effects.

The session, dubbed Public Forum on the Oil & Gas Sector and the National Economy, will be under the theme: “Enhancing Stakeholders Knowledge on the Economy-wide Linkages of Ghana’s Oil and Gas Sector for Poverty Reduction”.

The Centre recalls that Ghana began oil production in 2010 after fast tracking development of the Jubilee Oil field but worries that the majority of Ghanaians lack the right mix of capabilities and financial leverage to play effectively in the industry.

Nonetheless, it takes delight that government has indicated a desire to ensure that the oil wealth leads to an equitable and transformed development of Ghana, in particular industrialising Ghana on the back of the oil industry; ensuring the development of oil and gas industry and its effective linkage to the rest of the economy; converting the opportunities offered by the oil and gas industry to create decent jobs; diversifying the economy with emphasis on the processing of raw materials; and strengthening institutional capacity, amongst others.

The nation could stutter in this attempt due to little shared information and understanding among key national stakeholders about the linkages between the hydrocarbon sector and the national economy.

It is in this light that Tuesday’s forum is proposed. At the end of it all, ISODEC expects that participants would become aware of key issues and the forward and backward linkages of the oil and gas sector to the national economy, and acquire some knowledge about Ghana’s economic structure and dynamics in current times.

Also, the forum is expected to result in the strengths, weaknesses and concerns of Ghana’s private sector as well as national institutional capabilities being well-understood in addition to a better understanding of the oil and gas sector in the context of opportunities and threats posed as a result of the nature of Ghana’s economy.