The State Interest and Governance Authority has held the first of a series of media engagement to give accountability of progress and growth made in various State-Owned Enterprises, Joint Venture Companies and Other State Entities.

In this maiden edition, the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) and Ghana Gas were present to give a series of activities and measures introduced for quality productivity and growth in their various industries.

During his presentation, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Gas, Dr Ben KD Asante noted that the company has since 2017, saved the country an amount of USD3.5 million per month due to the introduction of indigenization. He said “before this, staff of Ghana Gas were made up of foreigners and some Ghanaians however, the company has politely excused all foreigners and we are currently working with hundred per cent Ghanaian staff.”

According to him, it took Ghana Gas just three years to indigenize comparing this feat of success to Trinidad, which took 40 years to accomplish same and Nigeria, 50 years.

Currently, Ghana Gas has created employment by increasing its staff strength from 265 in 2016 to 457 workers for both full-time and contract basis.

Dr Ben Asante said. “We have ensured power supply with increased gas flow from 2017 with 85MMscfd to 100MMscfd in 2021 from the Jubilee-TEN Gas. There was also an increment of 85MMscfd in Sankofa Gas in 2017 but it reduced to 50 in 2018 but increased to 70 in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the gas flow has increased to 140MMscfd and 180MMscfd respectively.”

On LPG, Dr Asante revealed that Ghana Gas in 2017 increased the flow of gas from to 221 tonnes in 2016 to 311 tonnes per day in 2017. Currently, the flow of LPG has increased from 322 tonnes in 2018 to 385 tonnes in 2021.

Dr Ben Asante again revealed that Ghana Gas is 60% completed on its intentions of making Kumasi another hub of thermal generation to supply lean gas to Nyinahim and Kumasi for mineral processing and power generation.

He said: “We want to have completed a gas processing plant expansion to increase the capacity from 150 to 240MMscfd as well as a 278km onshore pipeline from Takoradi to Tema. Again, the Phase one of a mainline compressor station at Atuabo to maximize pipeline capacity from 135 to 405MMscfd will be commissioned in July 2021 with EPCC in progress”.

On his part, Managing Director of BOST, Edwin Provencal said BOST, since 2017 has been able to clear all debts owed by the company and have also negotiated some others. These debts cleared include a USD$568 million of Legacy Trade Debt, a GHC58.4 million GCB loan repayment, a USD$10 million UMB loan, reduced CBOD debt from US$36 million to US$10 million and negotiated a StanChart loan debt from GHC137 to GHC100.

He also revealed that all audits from 2015 to 2018 have been completed with 2019’s being 90% complete whereas that of 2020 will be completed by end of June 2021.

Expanding more on the key successes of BOST, Edwin Provencal noted that “We have repaired six tanks at APD, Buipe and Bolga and rehabilitated the Tema-Akosombo petroleum pipeline. We have again commenced a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for Accra-Kumasi pipeline, completed and sprayed barges and tugboats and completed the extension of 8’’ pipeline to jetty”

He added that Remedial works on 18’’ CBM pipeline have also been completed and the inter-depot loading time has been reduced from four hours to two hours thirty minutes. Again, Mr … said the refurbishment of 12’’ pipes in houston have been completed including the settlement of US$8 million debt to AT&V and Bayou as well as increased its BOST margin to nine pesewas. BOST has currently also launched the 2020-2024 strategy handbook, commenced Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for LPG tanks and commenced export from Bolgatanga depot to Mali.

Present at the event was the Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and Minister for Public Enterprises, Stephen Asamoah Boateng who congratulated the two entities for their unmatched efforts in creating growth and contributing significantly to the progress of the nation.

He said: “The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) as part of its mandate given by President Akufo-Addo to ensure that the State-Owned Enterprises, Joint Venture Companies and Other State Entities yield positive returns to the citizens, we have also created a platform for them to tell Ghanaians their success stories.”

He added that such an engagement with the specified entities will give the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) the opportunity to ascertain the performance of the government’s investment in the public enterprises and also convince the government to invest more in their operations.